


We Need to Talk

by batter_sempai



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara Has Issues, Chara is not as demonic as they act, Chara suffers, Everyone needs to talk, Flowey has issues, Flowey suffers, Friendship, Frisk Has Issues, Frisk suffers, Gen, Papyrus Has Issues, Papyrus Knows More Than He Lets On, Papyrus is not what he seems, Papyrus makes friends with Chara, Papyrus suffers, Papyrus-centric, Post pacifist, Sans suffers, Selectively Mute Frisk, Soulless Pacifist - Freeform, Undyne and Alphys come to the rescue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 48,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9150322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batter_sempai/pseuds/batter_sempai
Summary: Something is bothering Frisk.Because of a deal they made in the past, a familiar voice keeps haunting them, telling them to murder those close to them and threatening to take over their body. For a while, only Flowey knows what is happening to them, but their struggle to keep in control is noticed by Papyrus, who offers to help them.All three of them soon find themselves isolated, as Papyrus attempts to communicate to the Fallen Child possessing Frisk, in order to protect his brother and to prevent another genocide run from occurring.





	1. At the Picnic

**Author's Note:**

> Brackets ( ) are used to show Frisk using sign language. An alternate title I gave for this fic is "Papyrus Suffers and Gets Physically and Emotionally Broken While Frisk and Flowey also Suffer: The Fic". Soon you will see why.

‘A PICNIC WITH ALL OUR FRIENDS, WITH FOOD AND DRINKS MADE BY EVERYONE! ISN’T THIS EXCITING, SANS!?’

Papyrus was gazing around the huge, pretty garden at all the gathered monsters and humans, his eye sockets wide, almost shining, and his permanent grin much wider than usual. He was practically bouncing in excitement as he waved and yelled a greeting at everyone he met. Sans grinned in amusement as he glanced up as his younger brother, delighted that he was so excited. “yep, sure is.” He replied, walking beside his brother in slow, calm strides, hands in his pocket as usual.

‘OH, THERE’S FRISK! AND MISS TORIEL!’ Papyrus whirled around, almost bumping into Sans, and pointed towards Frisk setting a large pie on one of the pretty picnic tables in the garden. Beside them was Toriel, holding a large basket containing a variety of her homemade pies. Since Papyrus’ voice was so loud, both of them heard him instantly, and waved over to the two skeleton brothers. Toriel waved delicately with a warm smile, while Frisk raised their hand and waved aggressively in delight. It was a surprise to see Toriel here at the picnic, since it’s being held in the large garden behind Asgore’s cottage, and she was still on strict no-talking terms with Asgore. However, she seemed to have put aside her disdain towards Asgore to attend this picnic, which was a celebration among the monsters for being freed from the Underground for six months. After all, according to her, “Frisk _really_ wished to come to this picnic to see all the friends they made during their adventure.”

Not all the monsters were here, as some of them were busy with jobs, or have moved too far away to come, but most of them managed to make it to the picnic, bringing food along to share. There were also some humans as well, friends that some of the monsters had made after they reached the surface, so the garden was quite full. It was a lovely sight, with sunlight from the clear blue sky shining on crowds of happy monsters and humans, sitting around picnic tables or on the green grass, with blooming flowers and shady trees surrounding them.

Papyrus dashed at full speed across the grass towards Frisk and Toriel, screeching to a halt just before he ran them over. He scooped Frisk up in a hug, and gave Toriel a hug as well after gently settling Frisk down. Frisk always noticed how extremely gentle he was when he hugged them, he always gave them tight, warm hugs, but kept them a few inches away from his body, as if he was worried that he might accidentally injure them if he held them too close.

‘hey toriel. hey frisk.’ Sans strolled up casually towards the two, winking at them, ‘glad to see that you both brought your amazing pies as well, toriel, i’ve been _pie-ning_ for your pies for a while now.’

‘SANS WHY?!’ shrieked Papyrus in mock frustration, gesturing wildly. Sans’ grin simply widened, as Toriel and Frisk started giggling.

‘I am delighted that you are both here as well,’ Toriel replied, ‘And I am pleased that you enjoy my pies, I made them _crust_ right for everyone.’

Papyrus let out an anguished yell, prompting Sans to burst out laughing and the other two to start giggling again. Although Sans was even more amused to see that Papyrus has a wide, genuine grin on his face at the pun, but was trying his best to hide it.

‘Konichiwa punks!!’ Papyrus suddenly found himself in a headlock, his skull being rubbed in aggressively by a strong, webbed hand. Undyne had arrived at the picnic, and somehow managed to sneak up behind all of them to surprise Papyrus. Alphys was there as well, feeling very nervous about joining such a big social event, but finally gave in after being showered with encouragement by Undyne, whom she was now living with. She gazed up at everyone, greeting them one by one shyly, while nodding over to Sans and hugging Frisk.

‘P…PLEASE DO NOT NOOGIE THE SKELETON…’ gasped Papyrus in desperation. Undyne laughed, and released him suddenly, causing him to fall face-first onto the grass, although she immediately bent down to help him up.

‘I…it’s a lovely day, isn’t it, everyone?’ Alphys remarked, to which everyone replied happily that it was.

Undyne took a seat and proceeded to excitedly inform everyone about the new house she and Alphys bought, how it had enough space for them to build a huge home lab for Alphys, how big the fire-proof kitchen was, and how there was even a large swimming pool. Alphys, gaining confidence from her, added to the conversation with how they had decorated the house. Everyone else listened with interest, with occasional teasing interjected by Sans and Papyrus.

Frisk, who was all the while smiling at this conversation, suddenly turned to Toriel, and began signing quickly to her. Toriel, having learned sign language to be able to understand Frisk, looked rather solemn all of a sudden.

‘You wish to use the bathroom?’ Toriel seemed to hesitate for a while, before nodding, ‘Very well then, but please do not take too long. Come back as soon as you are done.’ Frisk gave an apologetic, but half-hearted smile, before heading towards Asgore’s cottage hurriedly. Despite monsters not needing to use the bathroom, Asgore had one built in his house, in case Frisk or any humans visited him or stayed over in his cottage.

The five of them continued their conversation, while starting to enjoy one of Toriel’s delicious pies. Several minutes later, they began to realize how long Frisk was taking, and that Toriel was starting to get troubled by Frisk’s absence, as much as she tried to hide it.

About 10 minutes later, they saw Asgore heading over towards them from his cottage. Toriel looked away, but the rest of them greeted their king happily, with Papyrus giving him a hug, and Undyne practically flinging herself onto him in her excitement. Sans simply grinned, while Alphys continued to look bashful as she would always do in his presence. They all began chatting with him all at once, with Asgore laughingly having to tell them to slow down so he could answer them one at a time, while Toriel continued to stubbornly remain silent.

‘Ah, y...your majesty? H…have you seen Frisk?’ Alphys suddenly interjected, voicing out everyone’s concern, ‘They went to your house to use the bathroom, b…but it’s been a long time, and th…they never came back.”

‘Frisk? Well, I did not see them come into my house at all.’ Asgore replied.

‘But we saw them heading to your house, they said they wanted to use your bathroom.’ Undyne exclaimed.

Asgore pressed one paw against his chin lightly, thinking, before answering, ‘No, I have been in my house the past 10 minutes, and I did not see them entering or using my bathroom. Are they not somewhere in the garden?’

‘No, I do not think so,’ in her concern for Frisk, Toriel broke her silence towards Asgore, gazing towards him with a puzzled expression, ‘They said they wished to use your bathroom, and we saw them heading to your house.’ She paused for a while, and continued as she glanced down, clasping her paws, ‘I worry about them. It seems that they have not been well for the past few weeks. They started developing this tendency of suddenly dropping what they were doing and rushing away to remote locations, such as their bedroom at home, or bathrooms when we are out. For a while I assumed they were ill, and wanted to heal them or bring them to a human doctor, but there does not seem to be anything wrong with them. They often looked dazed or frightened whenever this happens, and I believe I have heard them talk to themself in their room before, while they were alone. It seems that they are doing it again.’

The group at the table fell silent, while the cheerful voices from other monsters and humans continued around them. Papyrus was the first to break the silence by standing up and stating confidently, ‘PERHAPS I SHOULD GO TO CHECK ON THEM, TO SEE IF THEY’RE ALRIGHT.’

‘Do not worry yourself over them, Papyrus, I shall go to fetch them.’ Toriel pushed back her chair, but Papyrus immediately stopped her.

‘NO, MS TORIEL, I WILL HEAD TO THE BATHROOM AND CHECK ON THEM. PLEASE CONTINUE ENJOYING THE PICNIC.’ Papyrus always felt the need to be useful towards everyone in any way he could, so he jumped at every opportunity of being able to offer assistance.

‘Very well. Please look for them and bring them back here, that would be much appreciated,’ Toriel answered with a grateful smile, while Asgore nodded in agreement.

‘I SHALL BRING THEM BACK SAFE AND SOUND, SO DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING, MS TORIEL. YOU CAN TRUST ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO ASSIST YOU.’ Papyrus continued enthusiastically, posing with one hand over his chest. He heard Undyne cheering, playing along with his dramatic act, and saw Sans’ grin widening. He felt a sense of pride. He always enjoyed being overly dramatic for the sake of the approval from both of the people he admired the most, it was nice to see them so amused by him.

He headed over to Asgore’s cottage with quick, long strides. It was a large, comfortable looking wooden cottage, very spacious with only one floor. Vibrant flowers and plants surrounded the house, and a large greenhouse stood beside the house. He searched around the house, calling for Frisk. It was much quieter around the house, but when he paused to listen, he could not hear any response from them.

He stepped into the house, calling for them again at the door. To his surprise, a much different but familiar voice replied him.

‘Frisk isn’t here. Now get out of here, your voice hurts my head.’

Papyrus perked up, and quickly headed over to the direction of the voice. ‘FLOWEY?’

Flowey had been planted in a flowerpot, and was placed on a wide window seat by Asgore. He turned toward Papyrus with a frustrated expression. ‘I said they’re not here. Go away.’

‘FLOWEY! IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE I HAVE SEEN YOU!’ Papyrus ignored Flowey’s response as he greeted him excitedly. ‘I HAVE HEARD THAT ASGORE IS NOW TAKING CARE OF YOU, BUT I HAVE NEVER ACTUALLY VISITED YOU HERE BEFORE.’

‘That’s because I don’t like visitors. I got him to keep me indoors so I don’t need to see anyone.” Flowey still looked annoyed, but sounded much less grumpy. As much as he hated it, he could not help having a soft spot for Papyrus, especially since the skeleton seemed so delighted to see him.

‘WHY ARE YOU NOT OUTSIDE, JOINING US ON THE PICNIC?’

‘I told you I don’t like visitors, idiot, I’m not gonna go out and I’m not gonna meet anyone.’ Flowey pouted, ‘Look, if you want to find your precious Frisk, they’re in the greenhouse.’ He pointed a leaf towards the greenhouse outside the window, ‘I saw them run in there about 10 minutes ago. Besides, that’s where they always hide if they start acting up whenever they come over to visit d-Asgore.’

‘THANK YOU, FLOWEY. I SHALL TALK TO YOU LATER.’ Papyrus, after flashing Flowey a grateful smile, immediately leaned over, threw open the window, and leaped out by vaulting over the window seat. Flowey shrieked.

‘Use the door next time!!” he heard Flowey’s yell behind him as he headed over to the greenhouse.

Papyrus pushed open the door of the greenhouse, and peeked in. Warm air wafted out of the door, but the greenhouse was completely silent. “FRISK?” he called out.

He heard a soft shuffling noise, like someone moving their feet slightly upon being startled. He headed into the greenhouse, searching around quickly, and finally found Frisk as they were in the act of trying to hide behind several large burlap sacks.

‘AH, THERE YOU ARE FRISK!’ he said cheerfully, holding out one hand, ‘COME ON, EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR YOU. DON’T YOU WANT TO…’ He stopped when he noticed Frisk’s wide-eyed, terrified expression. They were clutching their head with one hand, while holding out another hand with their palm facing towards Papyrus as if to stop him from getting any closer. For a moment it looked like they were about to speak, but instead they stopped themself, and began signing frantically.

(Not now. I’ll join the picnic later. Please let me be.)

‘ARE YOU ALRIGHT, FRISK? YOU SEEM TO BE IN PAIN. SHALL I CALL TORIEL OVER TO…’

‘ _Leave._ ’

Papyrus retracted his hand, recoiling his entire body from Frisk. That did not sound like Frisk’s voice. It had the same childish ring to it, but was much harsher, colder in tone. Frisk, for a moment, had a horrible look on their face. A wide grin, large glinting eyes. The look very quickly faded as they began to act even more frantic and terrified, hiding their face from Papyrus, keeping their eyes shut tightly, and wildly tried to wave him away.

‘Please go.’ This was said in a much softer tone, and sounded more like the Frisk he was used to. Feeling utterly confused, and perhaps just a bit frightened, Papyrus reluctantly obeyed, taking a few steps back while keeping his eyesockets trained on Frisk, before turning and quickly heading out of the greenhouse.

As he was closing the greenhouse door, it dawned upon him that he really shouldn’t have left Frisk. What scared him so much? Frisk’s voice? Sure, it sounded more malicious than usual, which did not fit Frisk at all, but maybe it was just his imagination. Maybe they were just sick but didn’t want to worry Toriel about it. He frowned as much as his permanent grin would let him. Something still bothered him, a faded memory, a fragment of something he couldn’t quite recall, or maybe didn’t _want_ to recall. It nagged at him. That face, that voice. He knew who it belonged to, or at least, he felt like he should know, but just couldn’t remember. He had seen it before, that nasty, sadistic grin. Plastered on a face, shuffling over towards him in the snow, hands clutching something, covered in dust, a quick slash, pain across his neck, so cold…

‘Didn’t you find them in there?’ called Flowey, peering out at him from the window he left open. His usual false grin was on his face, but his expression was completely unreadable.

‘YES. I DID. THEY SEEM PRETTY SICK. I’M NOT FAMILIAR WITH HUMAN ILLNESSES SO I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS WRONG. I AM ABOUT TO CALL TORIEL OVER TO…’

‘You’ve been standing by the door for a really long time,’ Flowey interjected, tilting his head slightly, ‘Just staring into space, with a blank expression.’ Blank, and with a strange glint in one of his eye sockets, but Flowey did not want to tell him that, ‘Something on your mind?’

Papyrus tried to answer, but he didn’t quite know what to say. Now that he thought about it, he had seen that expression on Frisk’s face, but not recently. It felt like years ago, a lifetime ago. But that was impossible. He had just met Frisk six months ago, when they were still traversing the Underground before the monsters were freed. They never made an expression like that during the time he spent with them, and they never spoke in that odd voice before (then again they didn’t speak at all while Underground). However, it still felt like, a long time ago, he had seen it…

‘Papyrus! You’re doing it again!’ Flowey said in exasperation, although he felt partially worried over the strange blank expression Papyrus kept getting. Papyrus shook his head, turning back to face Flowey, still unable to speak. ‘Look,’ Flowey continued, ‘If you really want to know what’s bothering Frisk, I can tell you, but I’m not sure if your naive mind can even grasp something this complicated.’

There was a change in Papyrus’ expression when Flowey said that, but that expression was gone as quickly as it appeared, although Flowey was almost certain that it was a look of pain. Flowey felt a pang of guilt for insulting Papyrus by calling him naïve. After all, he never enjoyed being called naïve, back when he was still Asriel. _They_ always liked to call him naïve, and while they claimed they were simply joking, it still hurt.

‘Fine, idiot, I’ll tell you later, maybe after the picnic or something.’ He paused as he saw the greenhouse door being pushed open, and Frisk peering out nervously, ‘Although I think Frisk should be the one telling you this. They really shouldn’t be keeping dangerous secrets to themself, it’s going to destroy them from the inside sooner or later.’ He raised his voice just loud enough for Frisk to hear, prompting Frisk to gaze at him in exasperation.

Papyrus whirled around, his demeanour and expression changing suddenly, going from sullen and brooding to bubbly and cheerful. Flowey noted that the change seemed much too quick, almost forced. ‘FRISK!’ he said jauntily, ‘YOU WERE IN THAT GREENHOUSE FOR QUITE A LONG TIME, I HAD NO IDEA HUMANS USED GREENHOUSES AS BATHROOMS.’ Flowey frowned, that was a lie, Papyrus came into the house looking for Frisk first, he clearly knew where the bathroom was, why was he lying to Frisk like this? Frisk, however, did not seem to notice, and just smiled, ‘WE SHOULD HEAD BACK TO JOIN THE PICNIC, MS TORIEL AND THE REST OF OUR FRIENDS MUST BE FRANTICALLY WORRIED BY NOW.’ He held out a hand to Frisk, who promptly took his hand.

Before he led them away, however, he said to Flowey, still in a loud voice, but much softer and gentler than the voice he usually used, ‘I SHALL ASK YOU ABOUT THIS AFTER THE PICNIC.’ He turned back to look at Frisk, ‘DO NOT WORRY, FRISK. IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE ABOUT REVEALING WHAT IS BOTHERING YOU, YOU DON’T NEED TO TELL ME. I’LL JUST ASK FLOWEY ABOUT YOUR CONDITION.’ Frisk look horrified, and shook their head desperately at Flowey.

Flowey made a face at them, sticking out his tongue, ‘Yeah, sure, whatever. Just came back here once the picnic is over.’ He proceeded to slam the window shut with his vines, and drew the curtains.

Frisk gazed up at Papyrus, looking dejected. Papyrus’ grin faded a little, as he gently patted them on their shoulder. ‘I AM SORRY, FRISK, BUT I MUST FIND A WAY TO HELP YOU, EVEN IF YOU WON’T LET ME. THAT CHANGE IN YOU…BACK AT THE GREENHOUSE…I DON’T THINK THAT WAS A GOOD THING. AS SOON AS I KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM YOU ARE FACING, I SHALL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY I CAN. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ONCE THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ON THE CASE. 

Frisk sighed, realizing that nothing would change the skeleton’s mind, and simply allowed themself to be led back to the picnic table, wondering what excuse they should give Toriel this time about why they ran off so abruptly.


	2. The Spirit

Evening soon fell, and as the sky grew darker, the guests at the picnic began leaving. Goodbyes were exchanged and the guests expressed their gratitude to Asgore for allowing them to gather in his garden. Very soon, only a few monsters and humans were left, staying behind to help clean up. The skeleton brothers were among them, although both of them were not doing much work. 

Sans was being lazy as usual, lazing around until either Papyrus or Undyne yelled at him, or suddenly appearing behind people just to make them jump. Papyrus was eagerly helping to collect dirty plates and cups while chatting to everyone, but he was distracted by wanting to hear Flowey’s explanation about Frisk. He kept glancing over to Asgore’s cottage, gradually losing more and more interest in what he was doing. 

Finally, unable to wait any longer, he slipped away from the group, taking brisk strides over towards the cottage. Its windows were now lit with a warm glow and looked very cosy in the dim evening gloom.

Flowey was already waiting for him. He peered out of the window towards the garden, impatiently tapping a vine against the window seat. As soon as he saw Papyrus heading towards the house, he stretched out one of his vines towards the front door and opened it. He didn’t want Papyrus jumping through any more windows.

“HELLO AGAIN, FLOWEY!” Papyrus grinned as he greeted the flower, closing the door gently behind him, ‘I HOPE I AM NOT LATE FOR OUR APPOINTMENT. IT FEELS JUST LIKE OLD TIMES BACK UNDERGROUND, DOESN’T IT? REMEMBER WHEN I WOULD SECRETLY SNEAK AWAY FROM EVERYONE ELSE TO REMOTE LOCATIONS SO I COULD TALK TO YOU? YOU WOULD POP UP FROM THE GROUND AT MY FEET WHEN I’M ALONE, WHISPER A LOCATION TO ME AND TELL ME NOT TO TELL ANYONE, NOT EVEN SANS. I WOULD HEAD THERE AT THE GIVEN TIME, THEN YOU WOULD BE WAITING THERE, AND START TALKING TO ME. I REMEMBER YOU SAYING SOME VERY ODD THINGS…’ he gushed, a little too innocently, keeping his perpetual grin as he spoke.

‘Y…yeah, just like old times.’ Flowey shifted himself in the flowerpot uncomfortably, not enjoying being reminded of his life Underground after he woke up as a flower. ‘Look, do you want to know about who’s bothering Frisk or not?’

‘OF COURSE, FLOWEY.’ Papyrus seated himself by the window, ‘I AM ALL EARS.’ His grin widened at his own joke.

Despite this, Flowey found that he had difficulty in figuring out where to start. He knew that it was Chara who was bothering Frisk. He could recognize them in Frisk, since he’d known them for years when he was still Asriel. However, he did not want to give Papyrus a full explanation on his past. For one thing, he had yet to tell anyone, besides Frisk, about who he was. Not even his parents knew that he was formerly their son, and no one aside from Frisk showed any signs of remembering him absorbing the SOULs of all the monsters during his final battle with Frisk. Everyone thought he was simply a strange plant monster, and Asgore decided to adopt him out of kindness since he had nowhere to go. He and Frisk agreed to keep it a secret between them to avoid his parents from being too devastated over him. It seemed like a better idea to let them believe that their son was dead, rather than let them know that their son had been turned into a soulless flower-like being who had murdered monsters countless of times in different timelines.

Another thing was that he wasn’t sure if Papyrus could even comprehend this. Many days later Flowey would realize how insulting it was to Papyrus that he would think so lowly of Papyrus’ intelligence. But at that moment, he felt sure that Papyrus was too naïve and simple to understand how he and Chara lost their mortal forms and became what they were now.

‘It’s an evil spirit.’ He finally said, although inwardly he felt guilty at calling Chara “evil”, it didn’t feel right to call his adopted sibling something so harsh, ‘Frisk is being possessed by an evil spirit, that latched onto them while they were underground. The spirit is bothering them by talking to them in their mind. Sometimes they have disagreements and the spirit becomes aggressive, that’s why they run away and hide from everyone, they’re worried they will lose control of the spirit.’

‘THERE ARE SPIRITS UNDERGROUND?’ asked Papyrus, ‘I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ANY SPIRITS LIVING UNDERGROUND, OR OF THEM POSSESSING ANYONE. ARE THEY MONSTERS AS WELL?’

‘No, they’re not a monster…and there’s only one of them,’ Flowey faltered in his explanation, ‘They were a human that fell Underground, but after they died, their SOUL went missing, and their body eventually rotted. They became a bodiless and soulless spirit that wandered the Underground for years, and they finally latched only Frisk when they fell Underground as well.’ He conveniently left out the information of how exactly Chara died, and what happened to the both of them after Chara’s intentional death.

‘BUT AREN’T THE SOULS OF ANY HUMAN WHO FALL UNDERGROUND STORED AWAY TO BREAK THE BARRIER? HOW DID THIS SPIRIT’S SOUL DISAPPEAR?’ Papyrus questioned, choosing his words very carefully.

Flowey hesitated, ‘I guess they just…’ he began to sound a little frustrated, ‘How would I know that? I’m just a flower after all. Don’t you trust me, Papyrus?’

‘OF COURSE I DO, FLOWEY.’ Papyrus said, and fell silent, shifting his gaze to the ceiling. There was such a long silence that Flowey began to worry if Papyrus could even understand what he said at all.

‘Frisk told me all of this. I asked them to tell someone about it, but they didn’t want to worry anyone, and they weren’t sure about how to explain it. I told them that they needed to get help to control it before it took full control of them, but they’re just so stubborn.’ Flowey continued. 

Still Papyrus remained silent, Flowey noticed that his expression seemed to have gone completely blank, like early that day. His permanent grin still remained, giving him a rather uncanny look. 

‘FLOWEY,’ he said, making Flowey jump a little after such a long silence, ‘HAVE YOU EVER MET THIS SPIRIT?’

‘Yes, I-’ Flowey was taken aback by this unexpected question, ‘No. No of course not! Why would I? I just heard all of this from Frisk. They told me all about it.’

Papyrus was now turned to Flowey again, still grinning, but with an empty expression. ‘CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THIS SPIRIT?’

Just at that moment, to Flowey’s relief, there was a knock on the front door. He was even more relieved when he saw Frisk opening the door a crack, and glancing nervously at him and Papyrus. ‘Oh  _ there _ you are, Frisk!’ he said, putting on a smile and shifting his attention to Frisk, ‘You’re just in time! Tell Papyrus more about the “evil spirit” that’s bothering you. Go on.’

‘what evil spirit?’ Flowey’s relief immediately changed to annoyance when the door was pushed open further to reveal Sans standing behind Frisk, with one hand on Frisk’s shoulder. ‘frisk saw you heading to asgore’s cottage, so i came over with them to see what you were up to,’ he addressed Papyrus, ‘you just dropped what you were doing and ran over here, are you getting lazy like me, paps?’

‘OF COURSE NOT!’ replied Papyrus indignantly, getting up. The odd, vacant expression on his face had immediately vanished as soon as Sans revealed himself, and he now showed his usual cheery expression.

‘it feels like you’re getting that way,’ Sans continued to tease, ‘you know, i’m not a good example to follow, although it would be great to have my little brother follow my footsteps. so when will i see you start wearing a hoodie and bedroom slippers like me?’

‘UGH, SANS!’ Papyrus pretended to look angry, throwing up his hands for dramatic effect, ‘HOW DARE YOU, SANS? I, PAPYRUS, AM A VERY HARDWORKING SKELETON AND WILL NEVER BECOME A LAZYBONE! MY BONES WILL NEVER GET LAZY AND WILL ALWAYS REMAIN SOLID AND NIMBLE!’

‘sure, bro. but still, why did you come here to talk to that friend of yours?’ He gave Flowey a quick glance, and while he still continued to grin, Flowey noticed he had a look of suspicion when he glanced over. The flower glared at him in return.

Frisk waved their hands in front of Sans to get his attention, and started to sign, finding that they were unable to speak as they were feeling to tensed. (It’s because of me. Papyrus wanted to know why I ran off today during the picnic.)

‘i see, kid. but why not ask you? why are you asking the flower about this, pap?’

Frisk looked a little guilty, and answered for Papyrus. (Flowey is the only one besides me who knows about it, and Papyrus came to him because I didn’t want to tell him, even though I should have.)

‘Since you’re here now,  _ you _ explain to Papyrus about your condition,’ Flowey interjected grumpily, ‘He wants to know about how the evil spirit is affecting you. I already told him all he needs to know about the spirit.’ 

Frisk nodded, understanding what Flowey meant by “told him all he needs to know”. They motioned for the skeleton brothers to sit down. Papyrus sat back down on the window seat, while Sans plopped down and laid back on a couch. Frisk settled down on an armchair, calmed themself for a bit, and began to explain.

‘I hear their voice in my head sometimes, and only I can hear them, even back then when I was still Underground. They just comment on things, giving explanations on things we saw around us, and on monsters we battled with. Sometimes they suggest things to me, but not very strongly, they usually let me make my own choices. Although, there were times when their thoughts and actions overpowered my own, but I guess it’s my fault. Their suggestions grow stronger and more aggressive during those times when I chose a more violent way to…’

They suddenly paused, and turned quickly to the rest of them, realizing they had almost accidentally revealed their knowledge of the timelines.

They saw Flowey cringe a little at the memory of the timelines where Frisk, aided by Chara, had killed him. They looked at Sans, and felt a pang of fear upon seeing that his expression had gone rather dark, and his eyesockets were completely empty.

‘so, it was the spirit that made you increase your LV?’ his voice was low, dangerous, sounding almost like a very soft snarl.

Frisk shuddered slightly as memories of their battles with Sans came flooding back to them, ‘It…it was my fault as well, I guess,’ they confessed, ‘I shouldn’t have let them take control, and I shouldn’t have tried to increase my LV, that was what made them stronger. I’ll never do it again, I promise.’ They saw Sans’ expression returning to normal, and their fear subsided.

All three of them turned to Papyrus, as he had not said a word throughout this conversation. He tilted his head slightly when he saw them looking at him, and prattled cheerfully, ‘BUT I DO NOT RECALL YOU DOING A VIOLENCE AT ALL, FRISK. YOU MUST BE STRONGER THAN THIS SPIRIT, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT HURT ANYONE AT ALL EVERY SINCE WE MET YOU, AND YOU SAVED ALL THE MONSTERS FROM THE UNDERGROUND! I AM SURE THAT YOU CAN OVERPOWER THIS SPIRIT IF YOU TRY. I BELIEVE IN YOU.’

Sans looked relieved that his brother did not seem to know anything about the past timelines, and was contented to let him remain ignorant due to the pain those memories might cause him. However, both Frisk and Flowey were not so easily comforted, but decided not to press the matter further.

‘…I don’t think I  _ can _ overpower them, and that’s the problem.’ Frisk replied, their shoulders slumping and they fidgeted in their seat uneasily, ‘You see, I…I…I...” they took a deep breath, “...sold my SOUL to them.’ 

Both skeletons sat upright, tensing up. ‘ _ what _ ?!’ Sans’ expression had gone dark again, and, for a moment, Papyrus had the exact same expression.

‘They…made me offer my SOUL to them,’ so that they could reset the world after utterly destroying it during the timelines when they killed everyone, but Frisk concealed this fact, ‘They’re bound to me now, residing in my body and sharing my SOUL. I can’t get rid of them no matter how I try. And-’ they shuddered, glancing at the floor, ‘-and…and they’re taking over me. Their suggestions, their thoughts, they overpower mine sometimes. Their thoughts are so bitter and violent, and they want me to hurt people. That’s why I keep running away and hiding, I’m trying to stop them from taking over me, because I don’t…I don’t want to hurt anyone…ever again…’ 

Frisk suddenly heard a wicked little giggle, echoing in their head. This was followed by a voice whispering into their ear, mocking them and demanding them to hand over their free will. They shook their head, but of course it was no use. Chara simply laughed and continued to whisper. In their terror, tears began dripping down their face, splashing on the carpeted floor at their feet.

They suddenly found themself in Papyrus’ arms, as the skeleton held them close to him, gently wiping their tears from their face with his gloved hand. They turned, and buried their face in his scarf, still sobbing, letting out all the bad memories of past timelines where they hurt and killed their friends, and their fear of Chara forcing them to do it all again. They felt another set of arms embrace both them and Papyrus. Sans had joined his younger brother in trying to offer them comfort. For a moment, despite their terror of being forced to kill everyone and reset again, they felt a little consoled, just slightly comforted, by the kind gesture of the brothers.

Both skeletons continued to comfort Frisk until their sobs finally subsided, and their tears stopped falling. They dried their tears as the two released them, and signed (Thank you.) to them with a watery smile. Chara’s voice had faded, but they knew they were still there, waiting.

‘Are you guys done with the whine fest yet?’ Flowey’s grumpy voice piped up. He had been sitting by the window pouting at them the entire time, partially feeling disgusted by their mushy behaviour, and partially because he felt left out being unable to comfort Frisk with a hug. ‘Well, now you both know about what’s bothering Frisk. Are you gonna try to do something about it?’

(There’s nothing they can do.) Frisk signed miserably, (I’m not sure what to do myself. I’ve thought about running away, but that would worry Toriel and the rest of my friends even more, and I don’t want to do that.) 

‘you’re not running away, kid.’ Sans ordered sternly, ‘there’s gotta be a way to solve this, running away will only make things worse.’

‘HAVE YOU EVER TRIED,’ Papyrus said, looking straight at Frisk, ‘TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THEM?’

‘Yes?...No?...’ Frisk uttered slowly, unsure of how to answer, ‘Not…really? I’ve spoken to them, I guess. I’ve talked to them, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried making friends with them? I’m not sure.’

‘PERHAPS ALL THEY NEED IS YOU TO BE THEIR FRIEND,’ Papyrus suggested with a cheery grin, ‘AFTER ALL, YOU MANAGED TO STOP MONSTERS FROM FIGHTING YOU BY BEFRIENDING THEM, LIKE HOW YOU MADE FRIENDS WITH UNDYNE!’

‘Yes, but…but I don’t think that will work now. They’re too bitter to listen to me,’

‘THEN I SHALL TALK TO THEM, AND BECOME THEIR FRIEND!’

‘How are you going to do that, idiot? They’re in Frisk’s body and SOUL, no one can hear them or talk to them besides Frisk.’ Flowey pointed out.

‘I CAN TEMPORARILY MERGE MY SOUL WITH FRISK’S, THEN I SHALL BE ABLE TO TALK TO THIS SPIRIT AND-’

The other three immediately yelled at him in horror.

(No!! That’s too risky, Papyrus! They could easily destroy your SOUL once it’s merged with mine!!)

‘Are you stupid, Papyrus!? What if they absorb your SOUL when you merge yours with Frisk’s!? They could kill you, and then grow even more powerful once they absorb a monster SOUL!!’

‘i’m not letting you do such a risky thing, paps. i don’t trust this spirit at all, it’s dangerous, cruel, and completely heartless. i’m not going to let it hurt you!’

Papyrus shook his head. ‘AND HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT, SANS?’ his voice was suddenly much more stern, as he gave Sans an unexpectedly serious gaze, ‘HOW DO YOU KNOW IF THIS SPIRIT IS AS DANGEROUS AND CRUEL AS YOU CLAIM?’

Sans froze, staring up at him in shock, and perhaps a bit of amazement as well at this surprising question. He kept silent, not trusting himself to answer this question in fear of revealing what he knew about the timelines.

Papyrus turned to Frisk again, ‘ANYONE CAN BE GOOD IF THEY TRY.’ He said. These words sounded so familiar to Frisk, ‘I BELIEVE THAT THE SPIRIT CAN BE GOOD AS WELL, IF ONLY THEY TRIED. I WILL BEFRIEND THEM, AND ADVICE THEM TO MEND THEIR WAYS, SO THAT THEY WILL NOT GO DOWN THE DANGEROUS PATH OF DOING A VIOLENCE!’

No one protested against Papyrus this time. All of them, especially Sans, were still reeling a little from Papyrus’ unexpected query. In the end, they reluctantly decided to allow Papyrus to try out his idea, as there didn’t seem to be any other way to help Frisk.

There were two spare bedrooms in Asgore’s house, kept clean and neat by him in case guests decided to stay over for a few nights. They went into one of the rooms, locking the door behind them. They decided among themselves to let Papyrus merge his SOUL with Frisk’s, while Sans and Flowey stood watch, ready to pull both of their SOULs away from each other if anything went wrong. Everyone felt tensed as Papyrus and Frisk sat down on the bed next to each other, preparing themselves.

‘ARE YOU READY, FRISK?’ Papyrus asked, looking a little uneasy despite of his perpetual grin. Frisk nodded, their entire body stiff. An upside down heart, glowing pure white, appeared before Papyrus, while a regular heart, glowing bright red, appeared before Frisk. Sans and Flowey watched silently from the sidelines.

‘PLEASE DO NOT MOVE, AND STAY CALM.’ Papyrus continued, as he gently pushed his SOUL over towards Frisk’s.


	3. First Contact

Papyrus opened his eyes.

He saw that he was surrounded by pitch blackness, as far as he could see. He tried to move, and realized that he appeared to be standing. When he looked down, his feet seemed to be rested on the same darkness that was all around him. He took a step forward, finding that he could move freely as if he were walking on solid ground, although he could not hear any footsteps as he walked.

This entire situation was new to him. He had never merged his SOUL with anyone before, he had only heard that this unusual circumstance was theoretically possible. He was hoping that if it did work, he would be able to share his SOUL with Frisk’s, and be able to see the spirit that was tormenting Frisk as they could. He wasn’t sure if it had worked correctly or not. He couldn’t see or feel anything around him, but could see himself perfectly, as if his body was its own light source.

‘FRISK?’ he called, searching around for the child. He felt a little fearful, but forced himself to push those fears aside, preparing himself for anything that might happen to him.

A small hand touched his arm, making him jump slightly. He whirled around to find Frisk holding onto his arm, looking confused and frightened. They inched a little closer to him, released his arm, and began signing. (Where are we?)

‘I’M NOT SURE.’ Papyrus confessed, ‘I GUESS THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN TWO SOULS ARE FUSED? IS THIS A COMBINATION OF BOTH OUR MINDS? IT SEEMS A LITTLE TOO EMPTY. I EXPECTED THERE TO BE MORE SPAGHETTI AND PUZZLES IN MY MIND.’ His half-hearted joke managed to make Frisk crack a smile, for just a moment.

‘IF OUR SOULS WERE SUCCESSFULLY MERGED, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE THE SPIRIT WITHIN YOURS, RIGHT?’ Papyrus continued, ‘ARE THEY HERE WITH YOU?’

Frisk hesitated, nodded, and pointed away from them. Papyrus saw, in the distance, what looked like a circle of light shining onto the ground, coming from an unseen source. He began slowly heading towards the light, noticing that a path of strange whiteness, leading from him and Frisk to the circle of light, was fading into view. As they both walked along the path, their footsteps sounded like fresh snow crunching underfoot.  

As they drew closer, a figure came into view within the spot of light. The figure appeared to be a human, around the size of an older child or a teenager, sitting on the ground with their back facing them. Their legs were pulled up to their chest, and they were resting their chin on their knees. They startled a little when they heard the two heading towards them.

Frisk faltered in their step, holding onto Papyrus’ arm again. Papyrus, sensing their fear, shifted his position so that he was in front of them, in order to protect them in case the figure tried to attack. He was now almost directly behind the figure, and could see that they had light brown hair, skin as pale as death, and was wearing a striped green and yellow sweater, and brown cargo pants. If it wasn’t for the color of their sweater and if they weren’t so deathly pale, he might have mistaken them for Frisk from behind. 

Papyrus summoned all his courage, and greeted them in a cheery, bubbly voice, ‘HELLO, SPIRIT RESIDING WITHIN FRISK! IT IS I, PAPYRUS, ALSO KNOWN AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I HAVE COME TO VISIT YOU IN ORDER TO REQUEST THAT YOU NO LONGER PLAGUE FRISK WITH IDEAS OF AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR. AND, IF IT’S CONVENIENT FOR YOU, I WOULD LIKE TO BE YOUR FRIEND.’

He felt Frisk’s grip on his arm tighten ever so slightly. The strange being did not react at all, almost as if they did not hear Papyrus. He still stood his ground, still continuing to smile, still a little frightened and tensed.

For a while there was just stillness and silence, no one moved an inch and no one dared to say a word. Then, finally-

‘ _ Go away. _ ’ came a voice; a harsh, icy voice, ringing with spite, sounding so familiar to Papyrus.

He did not falter, and continued to smile. ‘PERHAPS YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING AND DO NOT WISH TO BE DISTURBED? ALTHOUGH I DON’T SEE YOU DOING ANYTHING. MAYBE YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THINKING, OR DAYDREAMING, LIKE HOW I ALWAYS USED TO DAYDREAM OF MYSELF JOINING THE ROYAL GUARD. VERY WELL THEN, CARRY ON. I WILL VISIT YOU AND TALK TO YOU AT A LATER-’

‘I said  _ go away _ .’ The figure shifted, lifting their head slightly, ‘You should not be here. You do not belong here. You are intruding my private space, the only place I can reside in. Frisk is hosting me in their body, what I do to them is none of your business _. Leave. _ ’ 

‘DO YOU NOT SEE THAT YOU ARE CAUSING THEM GRIEF? THEY ARE FORCED TO RUN AWAY, WITHOUT EXPLANATION, FROM THEIR FRIEND IN ORDER TO SUBDUE YOU.’ Papyrus pleaded.

‘Do not interfere. Frisk brought this upon themself. They made a deal with me, I have kept up my end of the deal, and now they must do the same for me, regardless of how much they are forced to suffer.’ The malice in their voice made Papyrus shudder inwardly, ‘Leave this place, before I make you exit by force.’

‘BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE FRISK VIOLENT SUGGESTIONS. IN FACT, YOU DO NOT NEED TO HAVE VIOLENT THOUGHTS EITHER! YOU CAN BE GOOD AND PEACEFUL, LOVING AND NON-AGGRESSIVE, IF YOU TRIED.’

‘Oh, Papyrus, dear sweet, innocent, foolish,  _ forgettable _ Papyrus.’ they sneered, with a suppressed laugh, ‘As I have explained before, Frisk brought this upon themself, and nothing you say is going to change that. If there is going to be any bloodshed, any harm done, or any atrocities committed, it would all be caused by their deal with me.’ They were now sitting upright, still with their back facing the two. ‘Now, I am giving you one final chance to leave, and never return to Frisk’s SOUL. Should you not take this chance and depart, I am afraid I cannot guarantee that you will escape me alive.’

Papyrus felt Frisk’s hand starting to tremble as they heard these cruel words. He clenched his fists, a wave of horrible, negative emotions washed over him, but he very quickly suppressed them and calmed himself. He still stood his ground, ‘I STILL BELIEVE IN YOU, SPIRIT! REGARDLESS OF WHAT BITTERNESS YOU FEEL IN YOU, YOU CAN STILL BE GOOD.’

‘Last chance gone.’ The figure leapt up from the ground, turning their entire body to face the two. Papyrus, for a moment, was taken aback by the appearance of their face. Their face was a grotesque, eerie looking mess. Their eyes appeared to have been gored out, leaving empty, bleeding eye sockets. Blood and dark-colored ichor poured out of their lipless mouth, dripping off their chin and staining the front of their sweater. Parts of their faces seemed to be rotting and maggot-eaten, with portions of their skin falling out and revealing yellowing mucus and rotting muscle underneath, and the remaining skin looking wrinkled, decayed, and putrid. Their mouth was pulled into a ghastly grin, much too wide for any normal human to have. 

Papyrus was too stunned by their nightmarish appearance to react. They took this chance to rush at him, their mouth widening horribly as if their jaw was unhinging, their right hand lifted up above their head. Frisk screamed, and dashed out from behind Papyrus, confronting the other human and trying to stop them by grabbing hold of their upright arm. They screeched at Frisk, trying to release their arm, while their other hand went straight for Frisk’s neck. Papyrus felt a familiar sensation of horror when he realized that a knife had materialized in their uplifted hand. They had intended to stab him.

Frisk screamed again, and let out a strangled gasp as they failed to stop the spirit from grabbing hold of their throat. Papyrus rushed forward to save them, but was unable to dodge the entity’s knife. Frisk’s grip on their arm had loosened, and the entity began to slash at him wildly with it, and managed to gash at his SOUL, damaging it. But before he could react to the pain, he felt himself violently being pulled backwards and awoken.

He tumbled backwards with a yelp, and found himself in Sans’ arms. The older skeleton was holding onto him with a vice-like grip, his eyes burning with fear and fury. Flowey’s vines were secured firmly around Frisk’s arms and waists, having pulled Frisk away from Papyrus. Papyrus had never seen the flower look so terrified before. Sans and Flowey had pulled them apart the very moment they heard Frisk scream, and saw them snatching hold of Papyrus’ SOUL with one hand, while reaching up to grab their own neck with the other…

There was a long silence, an uncomfortable, unnerving silence. Frisk was clearly shaken, they sat unmoving, even as Flowey very slowly released them from his vines, not daring to look up at Papyrus. Papyrus himself appeared more composed, but inwardly he was still in a panic, full of horror by what he had witnessed. Sans seemed almost angry, glaring at Frisk, still refusing to release his brother from his grip. Flowey looked as if he were about to cry.

No one spoke for a very long time, until Frisk finally stood up quickly, still unable to look at the skeleton brothers out of shame, and feebly uttered an apology. They picked up Flowey in his flowerpot, and swiftly left the room.

Papyrus watched them leave, wanting to call them back but was unsure of what to say. He noticed that Sans still hadn’t released his grip, and suddenly came to a realization, delayed by the shock, that he and Frisk could have very easily been killed by that entity if Sans and Flowey had not pulled them both apart. He spun around, and hugged Sans tightly as well, gloved hands gripping onto Sans’ jacket, face buried in the fluffy collar of his hoodie.

They stayed that way for a while, refusing to let go of each other. Presently, Sans loosened his hold on Papyrus. ‘what happened?’ he asked. His usual permanent grin faded, and he looked very concerned and worried.

Papyrus lifted his head. He was much more calm now, expression vacant and weary. He very slowly explained exactly what he saw. He noticed Sans’ expression go dark when he mentioned how the entity threatened him, and attempted to kill him. At the end of his explanation, Sans turned away, gazing at the blank wall opposite of the bed, his fists gripping the bed sheet, far away in his thoughts, in resurfaced memories he had tried so hard to bury. ‘please,’ he implored Papyrus in a much softer voice than what he normally used, ‘please don’t do that again.’

There was a short pause. ‘I HAVE TO.’ Was Papyrus’ reply.

Sans’ fists gripped hold of the bedsheet tightly, he looked pained, but his voice still remained soft and pleading, ‘you were injured during the struggle, paps, that…thing…could have easily destroyed your SOUL, and killed you.’

‘FRISK IS IN DANGER OF BEING HARMED BY THE SPIRIT AS WELL. IF I DO NOT TRY TO CONVINCE IT TO STOP, IT WILL HURT FRISK, OR CAUSE FRISK TO HURT OTHERS AGAINST THEIR WILL. I MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.’

‘Look at you!’ Sans’ raised his voice, his dread and concern becoming anger, turning to glare at Papyrus fiercely, ‘120 damage! It did 120 damage to your SOUL, Papyrus! In one hit too. It’s not worth it, understand!? It’s not worth putting your life on the line to stop something as violent as that! There’s other ways to solve this.’

Papyrus shuddered, he never liked it when his brother began speaking in that odd, serious voice, louder than his normal lazy drawl, ‘I WAS HOPING TO SOLVE THIS PEACEFULLY, BY BEING FRIENDLY-‘

‘Being friendly!? You do realize you’re talking about a serial killer with no remorse about harming people, right!? Why is making friends the first thing you always think of!? Can’t you see how stupid and naïve that it!? It always got you killed in the past few ti-‘

That was the moment Sans realized he had made a horrible mistake. Papyrus, despite everything he had been through that day, only now began to show some genuine emotion. He stiffened, his eye sockets wide in horror, staring into nothing, looking almost as if he had been shot.

Papyrus had always felt very hurt at being called anything related to naïve or stupid, it opened up emotional scars that haven’t yet completely healed over the years. Sans had always been very careful to never use anything similar to those two words around him, but now he slipped up, and had outright insulted his own brother using the two words he dreaded the most.

Papyrus remained stiff, not looking at Sans, his expression pained. Despite not having any physical lungs, his breath was slow and laboured, hitching now and then as he choked back sobs. 

‘i’m…i’m sorry,’ uttered Sans weakly, feeling tears pricking against his eye sockets. Not tears of sadness or pain, but tears of anger at his own self for hurting his younger brother by being so rash and foolish.

Papyrus didn’t respond. But after a few seconds, his agonized expression suddenly snapped to a blank expression, with a vacant, unnerving-looking grin on his face. He looked down, and for some reason began to pick at the blackened bones on his left arm.

After a long period of hesitation, Sans, very slowly and carefully, reached out a hand towards Papyrus’ SOUL, and attempted to heal it with what little healing magic he knew. Papyrus flinched a little, but otherwise kept completely still to allow Sans to heal him. Sans knew that healing Papyrus, and the feeble apology he made before this, would not make up for his careless speech, but there was nothing he could do to take it back. Papyrus would forgive him, but he had already done the damage, and opened a new wound that would take a long time to heal. 

Sans was quite exhausted when the healing was complete. Healing magic had never been his strong point, he was more well versed in offensive magic. Papyrus shot him a glance, feeling a little sorry when he saw his brother’s tired expression, and felt grateful for the healing. But, at that moment, the words still hurt, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell Sans that it was okay, that he was forgiven. 

Instead, he stood up from the bed, still refusing to look at Sans, still with the empty grin on his face. ‘We…we should go home.’

Sans wisely said nothing, not even to comment on the strange, softer voice Papyrus had used. He silently followed Papyrus out of the room, out of Asgore’s cottage. The guilt of his mistake still ate away at him, and would continue to do so for the days to come. 

The trip home was a silent, sullen one, with not a word exchanged between the brothers, and so was the rest of the night. It was not until the next afternoon that Papyrus would finally speak to Sans again. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus' first conversation with a certain dead fallen child, which unfortunately didn't go as well as he expected. But we all know Papyrus isn't one to give him, is he?


	4. Second Attempt

‘What’s wrong, Smiley Trashbag? You look nervous.’ Flowey remarked to Sans, his voice sounding mockingly childish and chipper.

Sans, seated on the bed, didn’t even bother to look at the flower or reply him. He continued to focus his attention on Papyrus and Frisk, although Flowey felt a bit of satisfaction seeing a small hint of a frown forming at the edge of his perpetual grin. 

Flowey was seated on the nightstand next to the bed, very close to Frisk, while Sans had positioned himself right behind Papyrus. They were now in Frisk’s room. Papyrus was once again attempting to communicate to the spirit by merging his SOUL with Frisk’s. 

The other three had protested against him, fearing a repeat of the result of their first attempt, but Papyrus continued to insist on helping Frisk, promising them that he would protect them this time, and not allow the spirit to hurt them. 

“I WILL ENSURE THAT THE SPIRIT WILL NOT HARM YOU, FRISK! I SHALL TALK TO THEM, AND CONVINCE THEM THAT THEY CAN BE GOOD. WE WILL THEN ALL BE FRIENDS AND THEN WE CAN ALL HANG OUT TOGETHER. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY!”

Sans noted that he never said a word of protecting his own self, and felt even more concerned. However, he ended up giving into his brother’s request as Papyrus stubbornly refused to change his mind, and Sans still felt a little guilty about hurting Papyrus the last time.

Flowey looked over towards the two. They were seated on the bed facing each other, leaning in very close. Both of their SOULs were visible, hovering directly in front of their chests, partially merged. Papyrus’ white SOUL half melded into Frisk’ red SOUL, but not quite fused enough to cause absorb each other fully. Flowey was secretly a little curious to know what would happen if both the SOULs fused completely, although he guessed it probably wouldn’t lead to anything good, as he remembered what had happened the last time his former monster SOUL fused with a human one.

Both of them sat unnaturally still, with eyes closed and heads bowed. They’re expressions were an abnormal look of calm, almost as if they were asleep. They did not move a muscle or speak a word throughout the entire process, aside from the end of the last time they did this, when the spirit compelled Frisk to attack Papyrus and their own self. Since they didn’t make a sound, Sans and Flowey could not know what they were saying among themselves or to the spirit when their SOULs were merged, and could only be wary of any odd actions from Frisk to know when something went wrong, and when to pull both of their SOULs apart.

‘Come on, say something, silly.’ Flowey continued to taunt Sans, finding that sneering at the skeleton who had caused him so much trouble before was a good way to feel less stressed out over Papyrus’ and Frisk’s safety, ‘You don’t look too happy about this. Afraid your darling brother might get killed again or something?’

Sans finally glanced up, giving Flowey a furious, spiteful look. ‘fun fact, in the gardening shops here, humans sell a kind of liquid called “weed killer”, which they use to get rid of weeds, like you. i should probably buy some and keep them at hand when dealing with you.’

This only made Flowey more amused, he tilted his head slightly, still giving Sans that infuriating grin, ‘I’d love to see you try something like that, Trashbag. I’m not that easy to kill.’ He giggled, his grin becoming dark and twisted, ‘You should know that very well, after all those times you tried again and again to get rid of me so you could protect your precious brother, but failed!’

Sans continued to glare, but Flowey noticed a brief look of confusion, a quick aside glance, on his face. It seemed that Sans did not completely remember when the timelines were under Flowey’s reset-power control, before Frisk arrived. Or at least, he only had a vague memory of it, but enough to still be angry at Flowey. 

Flowey had a very clear memory about those timelines, but tried to forget them. He did not like being reminded of the guilt he felt whenever he killed all the monsters, especially Papyrus. 

Papyrus, he recalled, was always eager to befriend him in every timeline, and had never fought back, always giving him words of encouragement as he died…

‘at least my brother had someone who tried to protect him from being killed, i can’t say the same for you.’ Sans retorted.

Flowey’s ghastly grin turned into an expression of annoyance, and it was Sans’ turn to grin when he realized he had hit the nail on the head. He still had not forgiven Flowey even after all this time, even though he couldn’t quite remember why. 

He knew about the timelines, but his memory of every timelines was vague and unclear. He only had a recollection that many terrible things had occurred, but he wasn’t sure what. At first, he and Papyrus studied these strange  _ deja vu _ occurrences, and concluded that an anomaly had been causing these repeats.

An anomaly who could control time, and reverse time to a certain point, something that even he couldn’t do, despite having some control over time as well.

They never did find out who the anomaly was, or at least he couldn’t remember who it was. Papyrus apparently did, but before Sans could ask him, Frisk entered the equation.

And then Papyrus seemed to forget everything about the timelines.

Sans was alone with the knowledge of resets.

For a while, he secretly resented Frisk. He suspected them to be the only anomaly that caused the timelines, and suspected that their tempering of time somehow made Papyrus lose awareness of the timelines, leaving him all alone. As more resets happened, he had vague memories of them murdering everyone, or only murdered some people, including his brother. It was almost as if they were experimenting to see what happens if they killed certain monsters but spared the rest. It was infuriating and painful.

This resentment ended, however, when Frisk finally freed the monsters. But upon finding out that Flowey was responsible for the initial resets, he focused his resentment on the flower instead, even though Flowey no longer had the ability to control time. He just felt that he needed to blame his negative emotions on someone.

These thoughts passed through Sans’ mind as he sat in silence, his grin fading a little. Flowey, seeing the skeleton grow to solemn suddenly, decided to stop teasing him, and instead shifted his focus to Frisk and Papyrus.

\------------------------

Papyrus, after merging his SOUL with Frisk’s, found himself once again in that dark, empty space. This time, however, Frisk had materialized in front of him. They gazed up at him nervously, while he simply grinned at them, nodding, silently trying to comfort and encourage them.

They attempted to give him a watery, weak smile. However, they’re expression turned to that of horror as they spotted something standing behind Papyrus. 

‘I told you to  _ never come back _ .’

Papyrus turned quickly, recoiling backwards towards Frisk. The entity had been standing behind him, leering at them with their arms folded. Their face was still a horrible, putrid mess, with blood and ichor dripping down. Even though they didn’t seem to be carrying its knife, Papyrus still positioned himself in front of Frisk, not wanting the creature to hurt Frisk again.

‘I RETURNED BECAUSE I WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU-’

‘Well I do not wish to  _ listen _ !’ the entity interrupted, raising their voice, somehow able to glare at Papyrus despite not having any eyes in their sockets, ‘I told you, what I want to do with Frisk is  _ my _ business! Nothing you can say or do will change my mind, or stop me. Now leave or I will be forced to fight you, and this time, I will ensure that your SOUL is destroyed completely.’

‘THERE IS NO NEED FOR DESTROYING ANYONE, SPIRIT! PERHAPS WE CAN SIT DOWN AND TAKE SOME TIME TO HAVE A LOVELY CHAT-’

‘You should be running away from me as far as you can, not sitting down and talking to me! I have plans in mind, which I will carry out through Frisk since I have neither a SOUL nor a body. I want to cause mass destruction, a mass slaughter to reach the peak of our capabilities. And then, when we have reached our absolute, we will erase this world, and move onto the next.’ They declared proudly, as their horrible grin growing wider, ‘Is this not what we agreed to, Frisk?’

Frisk desperately shook their head as they peered out from behind Papyrus. 

‘No? Do you not recall those times when you increased your LOVE to its fullest? You gave me control over you, you agreed to continue the destruction of each of the timelines alongside me.’

Frisk began to sign frantically, (Didn’t I take it all back from you!? We both restored the world and revived everyone! And we saved everyone in the end! We changed our end goal to saving everyone so that all the monsters can be free and live happily on the surface!)

The entity tilted their head slightly, almost as if they were amused by Frisk’s desperation and fear, ‘That was never our end goal, Frisk. We agreed that we will continue destroying everything, in every subsequent world and timeline. But, I admit, you did attempt to back out of our deal after we destroyed so many timelines together. Perhaps you felt a sudden guilt over the atrocities we have committed? No matter, you already sold your SOUL to me, and thus locking you in this deal. There is no abandoning this deal, Frisk. Once you finally learn that struggling against me is fruitless and allow me to take control once again, we shall proceed as planned. We may not be Underground anymore, but that’s all the better. Humanity is disgusting, and I will be happy to destroy it along with monster-kind.’

Frisk cringed, letting out a weak whimper as they tried not to cry. Guilt flooded back to them as they realized there was no way out of this deal, and they had, indeed, brought it upon themself when they agreed to commit genocide against the monsters, driven by bitterness and their megalomaniacal desires.

Papyrus had said nothing throughout this conversation. The entity glanced up at his expression curiously. He showed almost no reaction to the conversation, and still had a large grin plastered on his face. However, the entity did not notice the expression of intense concentration he had while they were speaking to Frisk. He still kept Frisk behind him, protecting them with his own body.

The entity now spoke to him in a disturbingly cheerful, childish voice, ‘Well, we shall start with you! You have the privilege of being our first source of EXP before we destroy this miserable timeline. Since you are such a  _ forgettable _ character, I am sure no one will miss you much when you are gone. It will be just like the many times Frisk murdered you in the past, hardly anyone remembered you or even realized you were gone! Oh, right, you have no idea what I am rambling on about, do you?’ They giggled darkly, ‘You must have heard everything I said to Frisk as well, but I am certain your naïve, foolish little mind could not comprehend a single thing we discussed, am I correct? You know nothing, Papyrus, which is even better for us. You will not fight back like your brother would, simply because you are too ignorant to even put in the effort to fight.’

Papyrus said nothing, and showed no change in his expression. Frisk, however, noticed him slowly, very slowly, balling up his fists throughout Chara’s sneering.

The spirit continued speaking, ‘And you will continue to be ignorant of everything, because you are never leaving this place alive. This time, I will kill you quickly, so that your useless brother will not have be in time to rescue you.’ A knife had now materialized in their hand, and they rushed at the skeleton, raising the knife and brought it down, aiming for Papyrus’ SOUL.

Their knife simply slashed through the air.

Papyrus had leapt back, away from the knife.

He was staring silently at the entity, still keeping Frisk behind him, holding one hand in front of Frisk to prevent the entity from hurting them, and to stop Frisk from rushing at the entity again. 

‘Oh, so you  _ can _ dodge!’ The spirit looked surprised, but their grin quickly returned, ‘Even better! This will make our battle even more interesting.’

They slashed at Papyrus again, and he continued to dodge, managing to keep Frisk behind him at each dodge. The knife slashes grew more aggressive and frantic, until finally the entity stopped, looking frustrated.

‘Are you not going to attempt to fight back? Either fight back, or stop dodging, this is growing tiresome.’ They gave a childish pout, folding their arms.

‘I…DO NOT WISH TO FIGHT YOU.’ the skeleton replied, sounding oddly calm.

‘Then hold still and allow me to destroy your SOUL.’

Papyrus shook his head.

The entity stomped their foot on the ground impatiently, ‘Ugh, give me a break,’ they groaned, losing their creepy tone and their eloquent style of speech, ‘Are you seriously not going to do anything at all aside from dodge? This cannot even be considered a fight, because none of us will win anything.’

There was no reply from the skeleton.

The entity stared at him in disgust, ‘You are just like your brother. At least we had fun dodging his bullets while he was fighting us, but when he stopped during his ‘special attack’, it simply became really boring. I am glad we managed to kill him off after that.’ 

A look of ghastly delight suddenly spread across the entity’s face, as Papyrus dropped his grin when they mentioned Sans. ‘Speaking of your brother, is he not sitting right next to you and Frisk at the moment? He is! Since you refuse to cooperate with me, I will simply kill your brother instead.’

A shudder ran down Papyrus’ spine. ‘N…no…’ Frisk heard him utter.

‘After all, your brother only possesses 1 HP, and he will not be able to dodge an attack he does not see.’ Continued the entity, ‘What do you say Frisk? Come now, let me take control.’ They began heading towards the two, one hand outstretched towards Frisk. Frisk gave a little shriek, and shrank back behind Papyrus in terror. ‘Let me control you again, and we can finally defeat that comedian once and for-’

‘NO!!!’

A wall of bones shot up in front of the spirit.

The spirit yelped, tumbling over backwards onto the ground.

The wall of bones vanished. Papyrus had pulled himself to full height, standing completely still, with one hand held towards the spirit. They could see that Papyrus’ expression was anxious, full of terror. It was a huge change from his usual cheerful grin, or his occasional empty smile. 

The entity’s disgusting face, for a few seconds, looked like that of a regular child. They looked confused, almost frightened, like a child lost in an unfamiliar place. But it almost immediately became like the face of a rotting corpse again, with the unnaturally wide grin on its wrinkled, decaying skin.

‘Well,  _ that _ finally provoked a reaction out of you,’ they remarked casually, picking themself off the floor and dusting their stained sweater, ‘It appears that I finally have some leverage to use against you! So, you had better cooperate with me, or else I will simply destroy your brother, and then pick off your friends one by-’

Before they could finish, Papyrus gripped his own SOUL and dragged it away from Frisks, forcing both of them to awaken. Both of them could vaguely hear the spirit yell ‘Hey!!’ at them as they left, sounding almost offended that Papyrus had simply cut them off so abruptly.

Sans and Flowey startled upon seeing Papyrus and Frisk stirring, and opening their eyes, looking almost as if they had woken up from a long sleep. Without saying a word to either of them, Papyrus grabbed Frisk, pulled them off the bed, and headed quickly out the door.

Frisk was still in a daze, their heart almost beating out of their chest from what they had just encountered. They could barely register being dragged out of the room by Papyrus and the skeleton leaning down to them and saying softly, ‘Pack your bags, we must leave for a few days.’

They blinked, shook their head, and glanced at him in confusion. ‘W…what…?’

‘We have to go to some place where the spirit can’t hurt anyone, somewhere far, far away from all the monsters, from my brother. We shall stay there until we can do something about the spirit. Please, pack your bags. I’ll go home to pack mine, and meet you outside Miss Toriel’s house in 15 minutes.’

‘But…’ there were so many things they wanted ask him. Where were they going? Was this even a good idea? Would Toriel allow them to leave? Would Sans allow Papyrus to leave? And wait, Papyrus was able to speak softly all along!? Why was he always yelling every word when he could speak in this strange, gentle, almost soothing voice…

‘Please, just pack your bags. Don’t worry about Toriel, I’ll talk to her. We should head off quickly before the spirit tries to take control of you again.’

The fear of losing themself to Chara, and Papyrus’ unusual look of anxiety, finally made them agree, they headed back into their room as Sans poked his head out from the doorway.

‘hey, what’s up?’ asked the older skeleton, attempting to sound casual to mask his concern.

Papyrus turned to his brother, his anxious expression melting away almost immediately. Plastered on his face was now a wide, but almost hollow looking grin. ‘I WAS THINKING, BROTHER, THAT IT IS TOO HARD TO CONCENTRATE ON FRISK HERE, WITH SO MANY OTHER SOULS AROUND US.’ The change from his voice from a worried whisper to a bouncy, jovial shout was unbelievably quick. It was almost as if he had done this many times before, and he could mask his worry expertly. ‘SO, I HAVE DECIDED TO TAKE THEM SOMEWHERE QUIET TO BE ALONE WITH THEM, AND WE CAN FOCUS ON THE SPIRIT IN THEM TOGETHER.’

Sans’ grin faltered, ‘you sure about that, bro? that spirit’s pretty dangerous, it almost killed you the last time. and where exactly are you going anyway?’

‘BACK TO OUR OLD HOUSE, AS THERE ARE NO MORE MONSTERS UNDERGROUND, WE WILL NOT BE DISRUPTED BY ANY SOULS.’ And the spirit will not be able to find anyone to kill, as long as he kept the spirit from leaving the house.

‘back underground? all alone with that “thing”??’ Sans’ eyelights darkened, and he shook his head sternly, ‘too dangerous for you, pap, you can’t handle it on your own like that, at least let me come with you.’

‘YOUR SOUL WILL DISRUPT OUR CONCENTRATION, AND YOU WOULD PROBABLY BE ASLEEP MOST OF THE TIME AS YOU ARE TOO LAZY,’ He’s also now the main target of the entity, and can easily be killed if he drops his guard, ‘WE NEED TO BE ALONE. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY, BROTHER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL NOT BE HARMED! AND I WILL KEEP FRISK SAFE AS WELL!’ he posed dramatically once again, grinning confidently.

Sans was clearly struggling internally with this dilemma, he shifted uncomfortably, eyelights flicking between Papyrus and his surroundings, not replying. 

‘OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME,’ Papyrus exclaimed a little too hurriedly, looking at the non-existent watch on his wrist, ‘I MUST HURRY BACK TO OUR HOME TO PACK MY THINGS NOW. I PROMISED TO MEET FRISK OUTSIDE IN 15 MINUTES. I SHALL SEE YOU JUST BEFORE WE LEAVE TO SAY GOODBYE, SANS!’ He dashed through the corridor and down the stairs before Sans could stop him. 

‘wait!’ Sans attempted to follow him, but found that his brother had completely vanished as soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs. 

He sighed, still visibly uncomfortable and nervous. He ended up taking his own shortcut back home, wondering how he could convince Papyrus not to carry out such a dangerous deed, or if Papyrus would even listen to him at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter went on much longer than I expected, and I apologize for that.
> 
> And yes, Papyrus CAN speak softly, if he wants to. He just prefers to yell every single word he says.


	5. Back Underground

Papyrus was already waiting outside the house when Frisk finished packing. As they stood on the front porch, a hastily packed bag in one hand and Flowey in the other, they saw him with Toriel and Sans near the front gate. He had a huge rucksack on his back, another large bag in one hand, and an equally large cardboard box beside him. 

 

He was talking to Toriel. The driveway was long, and they could not hear what Toriel was saying, although they could tell that she looked rather concerned. Papyrus’ voice, however, was heard loud and clear all the way up the driveway.

 

‘YES. YES YOUR MAJESTY, I WILL TAKE VERY GOOD CARE OF THEM. YES, PLEASE DO NOT WORRY. AH OF COURSE, I HAVE PACKED ENOUGH FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT TO LAST US FOR A WEEK, THEY WILL NEVER GO HUNGRY OR BE BORED WITH MASTER CHEF AND THE ENDLESSLY ENTERTAINING PAPYRUS AROUND! OH YES, OF COURSE I WILL PUT THEM IN BED ON TIME AND READ TO THEM EVERY NIGHT. MAKE THEM BRUSH THEIR TEETH AND BATHE TWICE A DAY? OF COURSE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS PUTS MUCH IMPORTANCE IN PERSONAL HYGIENE.’

 

They saw Sans say something to Papyrus, also looking equally concerned. Again they could not hear what the older skeleton said, but they heard the younger skeleton’s reply perfectly. 

 

‘WHAT’S WRONG, SANS? OF COURSE I WILL LOOK AFTER MYSELF! I WILL NOT NEGLECT MY SELF CARE, NOR WILL I NEGLECT MY CARE OF FRISK. YES, OF COURSE I WILL CALL YOU EVERYDAY. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ME, BROTHER. OH, I WILL READ MYSELF TO BED EVERY NIGHT IN THAT CASE. I KNOW, DEAR BROTHER, I DO NOT LIKE BEING AWAY FROM YOU EITHER. BUT IT IS ONLY FOR A WEEK, I MIGHT EVEN BE BACK BEFORE THEN! AND WHEN I RETURN, YOU CAN ONCE AGAIN TORMENT ME WITH PRANKS, TERRIBLE PUNS, AND LEAVING YOUR SOCKS EVERYWHERE AROUND THE HOUSE! AND...OH? ...Y...YES. I...I WILL MISS YOU VERY MUCH TOO…’

 

Frisk stepped out of the porch and walked down the driveway towards them. Papyrus was the first to notice them, and turned his attention to them. ‘AH, THERE THEY ARE! FRISK ARRIVES!’

 

Toriel turned, and quickly headed to them. ‘Frisk, dear, are you certain that you wish to go on a vacation with Papyrus? Back Underground no less? There is no one else there, the both of you will be all alone. I do believe that the Core has been shut off as well, and you might not even receive any electricity. It has also been six months and I am unsure if it is safe there, without monsters to maintain the buildings and structures. Please, my dear, do reconsider this. I am sure there are other safer locations you may have your vacation at. And please convince Papyrus that I might come along as well to watch over you.’ Her voice was shaking slightly, and she was unconsciously clasping her paws together.

 

Frisk flinched a little at the word “vacation”. A certain phone call after one of their resets had made them have a negative connotation towards this particular word. They looked up to Toriel, and they thought they saw Papyrus giving an uncomfortable aside glance when he heard this word as well, but they couldn’t be sure.

 

Frisk gently placed Flowey and their bag on the ground, and began signing to Toriel that they will be fine, and that Papyrus would take very good care of them and Flowey. It was only for a week (hopefully), and they will have a lot of fun together, alone. This vaca- retreat would be a good way to help them recover from their ‘illness’, and be a good bonding time with Papyrus.

 

In their head, they heard Chara gave a giggle and cheerfully say something about torturing and then killing Papyrus while Underground, but they forced themself to ignore them. 

 

Toriel paused for a few moments, looking away, her expression full of disappointment. It reminded Frisk of her expression back in the Ruins, when she finally unwillingly let Frisk go. She suddenly knelt down and gave Frisk a warm hug. They felt her paws shaking a little, the same way they did back in the Ruins. 

 

Frisk felt tears filling their eyes.

 

Toriel eventually did let them go. She gave them a watery smile, and held their hands in her paws tenderly, ‘Very well then, my child. You may go. But please, call me everyday, more than once if possible. Tell me about your day, and tell me how you are doing.’

 

They nodded, smiling back at her.

 

‘Be good, alright?’ Toriel stood up, and turned to Papyrus, ‘Please, Papyrus, take good care of them, and protect them. You should call with them as well, so I can make sure you are both safe. You must be good too, alright?’ With that, she headed back to the house. ‘Goodbye, my dear Frisk. Goodbye, Papyrus. And goodbye Sans, do come to visit sometime if you are feeling lonely.’ She shut the door behind her, but not before Frisk heard her let out a soft sob.

 

Keeping back their own tears, Frisk picked up their bag and Flowey, and smiled at the skeleton brothers. Flowey looked miserable as well. Despite finding it hard to have any form of emotion due to the lack of a soul, he still felt the pain his own mother was experiencing. Having still thinking that she lost him and Chara, and was worried that she might lose Frisk again, he could understand why she was so reluctant to let Frisk go on a ‘holiday’ with Papyrus. However, he hid his face in his petals by bowing his head low, unwilling to let any of them see his sadness.

 

It was Sans’ turn to express his concern. He was gazing up at Papyrus, expression sad and pleading. ‘bro, really, i can come with you. i’ll help keep you safe from the spirit in case it possesses frisk fully. i can even merge my own soul with frisk’s to subdue to spirit if i have to. please, papyrus, i just want you to be safe. you can’t do this on your own.’

 

Papyrus shook his head, looking rather depressed as well, ‘PLEASE, BROTHER. I MUST BE ALONE WITH THEM FOR THE SOUL-MERGING TO WORK. IT IS MUCH BETTER FOR YOU TO STAY HERE THAN BE WITH US DOWN THERE. WE MUST BE ALONE.’ so the spirit won’t hurt Sans, ‘DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ME, DEAR BROTHER. I WILL CALL YOU EVERYDAY, AND I WILL INFORM YOU ABOUT MY PROGRESS. I WILL KEEP YOU UPDATED ABOUT ME, FRISK, AND THE SPIRIT.’

 

Sans remained stubborn. ‘look, if you don’t want anyone around, fine, i can understand. but i can just shortcut in to visit you now and then, and i can go to see you whenever you aren’t doing the soul-merging thing with frisk. i just don’t want you to be alone with that thing, papyrus. it’s a really bad idea.’

 

Papyrus’ expression became pained, ‘SANS…’ but he immediately gave his brother a strained grin, and stiffly struck a confident pose, ‘SANS! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! THE COOLEST SKELETON IN THE WORLD, AS YOU HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME. I CAN DO ANYTHING IF I SET MY MIND TO IT. AND I KNOW I WILL FIND A WAY TO MAKE THE SPIRIT REPENT, AND RESTORE FRISK! I WILL BE ABLE TO SAVE FRISK, AND SAVE ALL MONSTERS FROM DESTRUCTION! FOR I AM PAPYRUS! THE ONE WHO ALMOST JOINED THE FORMER ROYAL GUARD! AND I WILL CONTINUE TO GIVE MY ALL AND DO MY BEST IN EVERYTHING I DO!!!’

 

His words were bold, courageous, assuring. But his pose was stiff and his grin was tensed, uneasy, almost afraid. However, Sans did not seem to notice any of this.

 

Sans simply slumped his shoulders, looking away from Papyrus. ‘worth a shot.’ he mumbled to himself. He quickly changed the topic by turning his attention to Frisk, ‘hey kid, ready for your vacation with pap?’

 

Again Frisk flinched at the word, and again Papyrus gave an aside glance. Frisk managed to nod at Sans, while Flowey made a face at him, which went ignored.

 

‘which reminds me, how are you going to get frisk to mount ebott? we didn’t bring your car because we took our own shortcuts here.’

 

‘I WAS THINKING OF TAKING MY SHORTCUT, IT SAVES TIME AND IS FASTER THAN DRIVING, PROBABLY SAFER AS WELL!’

 

‘pap! you!? shortcut all the way back to mount ebott!? mount ebott is pretty far, are you sure you can even manage that?’

 

‘OF COURSE I CAN, SANS!’

 

‘...well, fine, just make sure you do it in short bursts, okay? you’re still not very good at it, and you could end up in a wrong location, or through the ground, or in a wall, or…’

 

‘I WILL, SANS! PLEASE, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ME!’ Papyrus said as he bent down to give Sans a hug, which Sans returned after a short hesitation. 

 

‘welp. i guess this is goodbye, then?’ Sans mumbled, after releasing Papyrus. He glanced around awkwardly, and then gave a sigh, ‘see ya around, paps, remember to call me every day.’ he turned to Frisk and Flowey, giving them a rather vacant, creepy look, before vanishing.

Papyrus’ smile became even more strained. He stared at the place where Sans was for a while, mumbling a soft “Goodbye, brother.” under his breath. He rocked himself back and forth on his heels for a bit. A week without Sans, all alone with something that could potentially kill him, Frisk, Flowey, and everyone else. Could he handle it?

 

Of course he could! He could do anything if he set his mind to it! 

 

...could he?

 

Frisk walked up to him, and gazed up at him curiously. He turned to them, his smile less strained now, but Flowey noticed that it seemed rather hollow. 

 

He eyed Flowey with concern, “OH, FRISK? ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BRING ALONG FLOWEY? IT COULD BE RATHER DANGEROUS, I AM WORRIED THAT FLOWEY MAY BE INJURED. NOT BY YOU OF COURSE, BY THE SPIRIT, IF THEY DECIDE TO DO A VIOLENCE.’

 

‘Of course I’m coming along, idiot. I mean, you did say you didn’t want people with SOULS to come along? Well, guess what? I don’t have a SOUL, but you should know this by now. So that means I’m an exception and get to come along, right?’ His grin grew wide, and he gave his petaled face a childish tilt, despite the sly glint in his eyes.

 

Papyrus seemed taken aback, realizing that Flowey had seen through his lie. Flowey’s grin widened even more upon seeing him at a loss for words. 

 

Papyrus eventually gave in, ‘VERY WELL, YOU MAY COME ALONG.’ He just had an extra person to take care of, and protect from the spirit if anything went wrong. No worries, he could do this. 

 

He’s been through worse, hasn’t he…?

 

Flowey’s grin turned into a bright smile, ‘Neato! Now, about that shortcut thing. I didn’t know you could use shortcuts, Papyrus! I mean, I’ve seen your brother use it, too many times in fact. He seems to like showing it off, doesn’t he? Or maybe he’s just too lazy to walk a few steps. I’ve always guessed you could do something like that, both of you being brothers and all. And I’ve seen you showing up at places really quickly, so quickly that it’s impossible you ran there. Come on, I wanna see you use your shortcuts.’ he was surprised at how excited he was over this. He’s never been this excited ever since he woke up as a flower. 

 

Frisk nodded, agreeing with Flowey enthusiastically. They gazed up at Papyrus, patiently waiting for the skeleton to respond. 

 

“AH, YOU SEE FLOWEY AND FRISK.’ Papyrus’ hollow grin gave way to a genuine one, eager to discuss about he and his brother’s unique ability, ‘I DO NOT USE MY SHORTCUTS OFTEN AS I RATHER HAVE THE EXERCISE. RUNNING MAY BE SLOWER THAN SHORTCUTS, BUT IT IS HEALTHIER TO RUN, ESPECIALLY FOR AN ASPIRING ROYAL GUARD SUCH AS MYSELF. EVEN THOUGH THE ROYAL GUARD HAS DISBANDED, I STILL CONTINUE TO EXERCISE AND TRAIN, TO KEEP MYSELF FIT! MY BROTHER SANS, HE’S A LAZYBONE, HE’D RATHER MISUSE HIS ABILITY TO ARRIVE AT LOCATIONS WITHOUT MOVING. I DO COMMEND THE EXTRA EFFORT HE PUTS INTO BEING LAZY. BACK WHEN WE WERE STILL UNDERGROUND, RATHER THAN WALKING OVER TO HIS OTHER SENTRY STATIONS, HE WOULD TELEPORT HIS ENTIRE SENTRY STATION, COMPLETE WITH SNOW ON IT IF IT WAS IN SNOWDIN. HE CLAIMS IT’S BECAUSE HE’S TOO LAZY TO GET UP FROM THE SENTRY STATION.’

 

Frisk giggled, they did enjoy hearing about the shenanigans between these two brothers.

 

‘I AM HAPPY TO SEE THAT YOU ARE AMUSED, FRISK, BUT IT GETS VERY EXASPERATING SINCE I WISH FOR MY BROTHER TO BE HEALTHY AND STRONG LIKE MYSELF.’ he sighed dramatically, ‘OH, WELL. ANYWAY, OUR ABILITIES ARE ACTUALLY RATHER DIFFERENT. IN PRACTICE THEY ARE THE SAME, BUT IN THEORY, WE MANIPULATE DIFFERENT ASPECTS FOR OUT SHORTCUTS. MY BROTHER MANIPULATES TIME, HE CAN SHORTEN THE TIME IT TAKES TO ARRIVE AT A LOCATION. IMAGINE TIME AS A LINEAR PATH, HE IS ABLE TO MAKE TIME FOLD IN ON ITSELF. HE IS EVEN ABLE TO PAUSE TIME FOR A WHILE! ON THE OTHER HAND, I CAN MANIPULATE SPACE. I AM ABLE TO MAKE DISTANCES SHORTER. I AM ALSO ABLE TO BEND GRAVITY, MASS, AND VELOCITY, WHICH CAN HELP A LOT WITH PUZZLE-MAKING! HOW DID YOU THINK I MADE SOME OF THOSE PUZZLES BACK IN SNOWDIN? FOR INSTANCE, THE PUZZLE WHERE YOU HAD TO SLIDE ACROSS THE ICE TO ACTIVATE SWITCHES! I ARRANGE THE SWITCHES BY FLOATING OVER THE ICE! NYEH HEH HEH!’

 

Frisk and Flowey looked a little bewildered by all this. They did not expect Papyrus to launch into a somewhat scientific explanation on how his and Sans’ unique abilities worked. In fact, they had no idea Papyrus had any scientific knowledge at all, and understood what mass and velocity was. Frisk guessed Sans would have this sort of knowledge, since he apparently worked as a scientist before. They would have expected this explanation from Sans, but Papyrus?

 

Ah well, maybe he learned about it sometime ago in some monster equivalent of school. This wasn’t the time to worry about this now.

 

‘GOLLY! I WASTED SO MUCH TIME EXPLAINING ABOUT OUR MAGIC! WE MUST REALLY GET GOING!’ he leaned in close to the two, ‘PLEASE, DO NOT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS. I AM SURE UNDYNE AND ALPHYS MIGHT SUSPECT US OF HAVING UNUSUAL ABILITIES, BUT BOTH SANS AND I AGREED TO NOT TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT. WE LIKE TO KEEP OUR SECRETS, ESPECIALLY SANS, AND I DO NOT THINK HE WOULD APPRECIATE ME TELLING YOU ALL THIS.’

 

Frisk nodded again, although Flowey simple grinned and said, ‘No promises.’ However, Papyrus knew he was only teasing. Flowey would keep this secret among the three of them...or four, since the spirit in Frisk might also be listening.

 

‘AND NOW, WE SHOULD SET OFF!’ Papyrus straightened himself up, and picked up his bag and the large cardboard box in both hands, ‘FIRST OF ALL. I MUST CONCENTRATE A BIT TO BE ABLE TO GET TO MOUNT EBOTT. MY ABILITY UNFORTUNATELY IS NOT AS ACCURATE OR AS FAST AS SANS’, I MUST TRY TO VISUALIZE THE SHORTCUT I HAVE TO TAKE.’ He closed his eyes for a while, deep in concentration, while the two children watched in silence, waiting patiently and excitedly. ‘GOT IT!’ He suddenly exclaimed loudly, and opened his eyes, ‘ARE YOU READY? IT MIGHT GET A LITTLE BUMPY, IF YOU TWO DO NOT MIND.’

 

Frisk held onto Flowey and their bag tightly, and smiled up at Papyrus to show that they were ready. Flowey seemed to sink down into his pot, a little worried at what might happen next.

 

And they jumped.

 

It really did feel like they jumped down from somewhere high up. Frisk felt as if their stomach were left behind somewhere as everything around them faded into what looked like darkness, punctuated with what seemed like shining stars and colorful nebula. They swore they could feel nothing underneath their feet and wind in their hair for a few moments. Flowey gave a tiny shriek, and dived into his flowerpot. 

 

This felt different from Sans’ shortcut. They had experienced Sans’ shortcuts a few times. Those shortcuts felt more like they were walking very quickly behind him through a flurry of blurred shapes and colors. Sometimes they felt like they could hear a very faint but quick ticking of a clock around them in his shortcut. 

 

The shortcut was over in a flash. Frisk found themself standing on grass, surrounded by tall trees with sunlight streaming through the leaves. They looked around, dazed, and caught sight of Papyrus, standing in the exact same position as he was before the shortcut. He looked absolutely thrilled, his eye-sockets somehow shining in sheer excitement and his grin wider than ever.

 

‘I DID IT!’ he was bouncing up and down, almost dropping the bag and the cardboard box. He gazed at Frisk, giving them an exhilarated, joyful look which reminded them of his expression when they first told him that they wanted to befriend him. ‘LOOK AROUND YOU, WE ARE RIGHT AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT EBOTT!’

 

And so they were, Frisk and Flowey looked up, and both of them could recognize the mountain. Flowey gave a small shudder. The sight of this mountain did not bring back any good memories for him, as the last time he had seen this mountain was when he was carrying the body of Chara away from the village, broken, bruised, and close to death….

 

‘AND I DID IT ALL IN ONE GO! I DID NOT EVEN HAVE TO DO IT IN SHORT BURSTS LIKE SANS TOLD ME TOO!’ Papyrus was dancing around at this point, ‘I HAVE NOT GONE OUT OF PRACTICE AT ALL! HOW ABSOLUTELY LOVELY!!!’

 

He then stopped, and stood still again, ‘AND NOW TO MAKE A SHORTCUT BACK TO MY OLD HOUSE IN SNOWDIN! ARE YOU BOTH READY?’

 

‘What!? No! Of course we’re not rea-’ Flowey’s protest was cut off by a shriek of terror as they plummeted through another shortcut. Frisk was starting to enjoy it this time. It felt like they were falling into space itself, and they marvelled at the strange cosmic-like surroundings, despite it only lasting a second. 

 

They then found themself standing on the carpeted floor of a darkened building. It took a while for their eyes to get used to their surroundings after the bright sunlight. They could barely register that they were in the living room of Papyrus’ and Sans’ old Snowdin house. It has been a while since they were here, and they could hardly see through the darkness. The dim light streaming in from the windows was not enough to light up much of the room.

 

‘AH, HERE WE ARE!’ Papyrus said, voice still ringing in excitement, ‘WELCOME BACK TO MY OLD HOUSE! IT SEEMS RATHER DARK, DOESN’T IT? LIKE WHAT MS TORIEL SAID, THERE IS NO LONGER ANY ELECTRICITY DOWN HERE, SINCE THE CORE HAS BEEN SHUT OFF. BUT DO NOT FRET, FRISK AND FLOWEY! WE HAVE A BACKUP GENERATOR IN THE BASEMENT BEHIND THE HOUSE, I SHALL JUST TURN IT ON AND EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE AND DANDY!’

 

He dropped his bags and the box to the floor, and headed over towards the front door. ‘PLEASE WAIT HERE.’ he told the children, before throwing the door open and striding through the snow to the back of the house.

 

A blast of cold air blew through the door, making Frisk shiver, and forcing them to retreat to the far end of the room, despite the darkness. The snow outside seemed much higher than they remembered it, likely because there had been no monster to sweep away the snow for six months.

 

It suddenly occurred to them just how isolated they would be here. There were no signs of life besides themselves, since every monster ended up leaving the Underground. They would have the entire Underground to themselves, but it would be so lonely and silent. They were not sure if they liked this idea at all, now that they thought about it. 

 

However, they reminded themself that they had to go through with this for the sake of monsterkind and humanity, and hopefully Papyrus would be able to communicate to and convince Chara to not go through with their violent plan.

 

‘Doubt it,’ they heard Chara say in their head with a nasty laugh, ‘it is more likely that we will end up killing him here, and no one will ever knew because we are all alone. Let me take over, Frisk! We will destroy him and take the EXP we rightfully deserve. We can kill our only witness too. Then we will continue onwards and destroy this world as we did with so many others.’

 

They forced themself to ignore Chara, but they did wonder why Chara blatantly refused to even mention Flowey, not even by name.

 

Their thoughts were interrupted when the lights turned on, leaving them slightly dazed for a moment. Papyrus soon reappeared by the front door, and closed it behind him, still beaming.

 

‘THERE WE GO, NOW WE SHALL BE MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE!’ he glanced around the room, ‘GOODNESS, THIS PLACE IS COVERED IN A LAYER OF DUST. I SHALL HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP BEFORE WE CAN STAY HERE PROPERLY.’

 

The lights revealed that most of the furniture were gone, aside from the couch and the long table, since they were rather old and Papyrus decided to buy new ones on the surface rather than bring those old ones up and risk them breaking apart. The TV was gone, however, and was currently in the brothers’ new house on the surface. Most of the things in the kitchen were still intact, including the fridge and the ridiculously tall sink. 

 

Papyrus had already gotten out cleaning supplies from one of his bags, and was vigorously dusting the couch. 

 

‘EXCELLENT!’ he exclaimed after he was done, ‘SPOTLESS! HERE, FRISK AND FLOWEY, YOU MAY SIT HERE AND WAIT AS I QUICKLY CLEAN UP THE ROOMS OF THIS HOUSE! YOU ARE MY HOUSEGUESTS AFTER ALL, AND I WILL TREAT YOU AS SUCH. THEN, WE SHALL UNPACK OUR THINGS IN THE BEDROOMS. YOU CAN PICK ANY ROOM YOU WISH, FRISK, BUT I WOULD SUGGEST MY ROOM, SINCE I DO NOT THINK SANS CLEANED UP HIS FILTHY ROOM BEFORE WE LEFT! I SUPPOSE I SHALL HAVE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS HE LEFT FOR SIX MONTHS!’

 

He was tying a cloth over the top of his skull, despite having no hair for the dust to get stuck in. ‘FLOWEY, WHICH ROOM WOULD YOU LIKE TO SLEEP IN?’

 

‘I’d rather sleep down here, alone, in the living room, thanks.’ replied Flowey shortly. He was still in shock over the shortcuts, and being in shock made him grumpy. 

 

‘OH, OF COURSE NOT! BEDROOMS ARE MEANT TO BE SLEPT IN, NOT LIVING ROOMS!’ Papyrus had begun to dust the countertops in the kitchen, ‘NO WORRIES! WE SHALL WORK THAT OUT LATER. AFTER I AM DONE CLEANING, I SHALL COOK UP A MEAL FOR US ALL. DO NOT WORRY, WE SHALL HAVE A LOVELY TIME HERE!’

  
Both Frisk and Flowey heard his cheerful voice faltering when he said the last line.  Once again they saw that hollow, strained smile on Papyrus’ face. But both of them, even Flowey, wisely decided not to say anything, and simply sat on couch, waiting for Papyrus to finish cleaning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The brothers are not used to being separated for long, it brings back unpleasant memories. We shall see how well they fair in this, shall we?


	6. Restless Night

‘I thought the only thing you knew how to cook was spaghetti,’ Flowey remarked.

 

‘WELL, IT  _ WAS _ THE ONLY THING I KNEW HOW TO COOK,’ replied Papyrus from the kitchen, peering around the door, ‘HOWEVER, AFTER REACHING THE SURFACE, I DELVED INTO THE STUDIES OF HUMAN CULINARY ARTS. I READ MANY RECIPES ONLINE AND WATCHED MANY HUMAN COOKING SHOWS. I HAVE BROADENED MY KNOWLEDGE AND INCREASED MY COOKERY SKILLS SO THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN ACHIEVE ONE OF MY NEW DREAMS OF BECOMING THE GREAT CHEF PAPYRUS! SINCE I CAN NO LONGER ACHIEVE MY DREAM OF BEING A ROYAL GUARD, WHY NOT PURSUE NEW DREAMS?’

 

The long table left in the house had been repurposed into a dining table, and Papyrus had placed it in front of the couch so that they could sit on the couch to eat. 

 

On the table he had placed a dish containing baked potatoes (still steaming hot and with melted butter dripping down the sides) and fried bacon, a dish with a rather plain looking salad, and a dish with steaming canned soup in it. 

 

Frisk was staring silently at the food, rather surprised that this was produced by the skeleton who could barely cook spaghetti six months ago. 

 

Papyrus was still unpacking things in the kitchen, neatly arranging the food he brought into the shelves and into the fridge. Flowey noticed him very carefully taking a small box out of the bigger cardboard box he brought, and placing it on the top shelf of the fridge. 

 

‘PERHAPS BOTH OF YOU WOULD LIKE TO EAT FIRST?’ came his voice from the kitchen, ‘I AM ALMOST DONE WITH UNPACKING THE FOOD, BUT IT IS MUCH BETTER IF YOU BOTH STARTED EATING BEFORE THE FOOD GOES COLD.’

 

Frisk sat down on the couch, placing Flowey down on the table. They set the table so that there was a plate, a bowl, a soup spoon, and cutlery for each of them. They then proceeded take some food for themself. 

 

They would have liked to help Flowey, but the flower seemed rather grumpy at being helped, and used his own vines to pick up his cutlery.

 

The potatoes were a little undercooked and hard, while the salad had a bit too much dressing on it and consisted of only lettuce and canned corn. The combination of potatoes, salad, bacon, and soup also seemed rather strange. Nevertheless, at least it was edible and smelt delicious.

 

Papyrus soon came to join them. Despite knowing how to bake potatoes and to put butter on them, he didn’t seem to know how to eat a baked potato. He simply stabbed a fork into the middle of it and ate it off the fork. Flowey was no better, and ate the potatoes right off the plate messily with his petalled face. 

 

Near the end of the meal, Frisk had left their salad mostly untouched. They never did like vegetables anyway, especially not a salad with nothing but lettuce and canned corn. Besides, Toriel wasn’t around to tell them to eat their greens, so it shouldn’t matter-

 

‘EAT YOUR VEGETABLES, FRISK.’ Papyrus said sternly, noticing the pile of salad left on their plate, ‘I AM SURE MS TORIEL WOULD WANT YOU TO FINISH IT. VEGETABLES MAKE HUMANS GROW UP STRONG AND HEALTHY! JUST LIKE HOW MILK BENEFITS US SKELETONS! ALTHOUGH I SUPPOSE MILK ALSO BENEFITS HUMANS AS WELL? BECAUSE HUMANS HAVE BONES? BUT HOW? I HEAR THAT BONES ARE INSIDE HUMANS? HOW DOES THAT WORK?’ he looked bewildered as he spoke, much to the amusement of the kids.

 

Frisk decided to suck it up and finish the salad, and tried their best to ignore Chara, who was making disgusted noises in their mind.

 

After clearing up the dishes, Papyrus decided that it was to be bedtime soon. It must be night outside by now, and he was feeling exhausted from using his shortcut to travel so far, although he did not show it. 

 

Communicating with the spirit could wait.

 

He passed the time by solving a jigsaw puzzle with Frisk, which could not be not be completed for a while as Flowey hid some of the pieces, but ended up giving them back after being coaxed by Papyrus. 

 

It was soon bedtime, and Papyrus carried his and Frisk’s sleeping bags upstairs to the bedrooms. 

 

Papyrus offered Frisk his old room, and even set up their sleeping bag there before they could stop him. He himself took Sans’ room, which, as he expected, was still a mess. 

 

The furniture and clothes had been removed, but most of the trash on the floor remained. The tiny, self-sustained trash tornado was still spinning merrily in a corner. He cleaned up the room as much as he could, removed the trash tornado with his magic, and laid out his sleeping bag on the cleanest spot of the room he could find. 

 

Flowey was still grumpy about sharing a room with either of them, and stayed in the living room, even though Papyrus begged him to at least sleep in one of the bedrooms. 

 

Frisk suspected that the idea of sharing a bedroom might have reminded Flowey of his past as Asriel, when he used to share a bedroom with Chara. They decided to remain silent about it.

 

So Flowey stayed in the living room, in his flowerpot on the table. He tried to stay awake for a bit to sulk and continue to feel miserable. Eventually, he began to doze off. The warm blanket Papyrus had kindly draped over him didn’t help him in staying awake. The skeleton had also laid out some pillows on the couch beside table. Flowey moved over to the couch with his vines, and rested his head on the pillows. 

 

Feeling contented for the first time in ages, he sighed and dozed off, pulling the blanket over as much of his vines as possible.

 

Papyrus, on the other hand, stayed awake. Despite being tired from using his shortcut, his sleeping bag laid abandoned on the floor, and he was leaning against the wall beside his old room, where Frisk was. He kept perfectly still, not even making a single noise since he did not need to breath.

 

Sleepiness wasn’t a problem for him, he hardly ever slept anyway, although he had been sleeping more on the surface than he did Underground. His sleep had also been more peaceful on the surface. 

 

Aside from that, he had too much things on his mind at the moment, and it felt rather uncomfortable to be away from Sans. They’ve been sleeping in separate rooms for years, but it always felt nice to know that his brother was close by, snoring away in the next room. It just did not feel right that Sans was so far away, probably feeling the same way and being unable to sleep as well. 

 

So he kept awake, and leaned against the wall, listening intently, picking at the blackened bones on his arms again. 

 

Waiting. 

 

Frisk was not asleep as well. They stayed awake even after Papyrus had read them a story and turned their room lights out, sitting up in their sleeping bag with their knees pulled close to their body. The room was almost bare aside from a desk, since Papyrus had moved everything else he owned to the surface. It looked very gloomy in the darkness. 

 

They could hear Chara’s voice again, and it sounded louder and more intrusive than ever.

 

‘How long will you keep denying my control, Frisk?’ the voice of the fallen child echoed in their head, ‘You know I will not change my mind or my goals, no matter how long he keeps us down here. He cannot confine us within the walls of this house forever, and still I desire more EXP and the inevitable destruction of this world.’

 

‘I won’t let you do that.’ Frisk replied in a small, frightened voice.

 

‘There is no use trying to force me to submit to you. Because of that deal you made with me, I have control over your SOUL, and my control over it grows stronger and stronger every day. You have been denying me for over six months, you shall deny me no longer.’

 

‘I still have control over my mind and body. I won’t let you take that away from me!’

 

‘It is too late for that, my dear accomplice. Have I not been filling your mind with intrusive thoughts? Desire to kill even those closest to you to earn EXP? That is why you kept running away to hide. That is why these sessions of us fighting for control have grown longer and longer. I am growing stronger, Frisk. Very soon I shall forcefully take over, and keep you back in the dark recesses of this mind while I can pilot your body with no hindrance.’ 

 

‘Or, perhaps, you can submit to me gracefully, and we can destroy this world together, like we have done before. There are only two options, Frisk, should you not pick the one that seems the most appealing to you?’

 

Frisk began to weep, tears streaming down their face, as their hope faded even further. There did not seem to be any way out of this. Chara would never change their mind, and Papyrus’ method did not seem to be doing anything. 

 

Another way out, in their desperation, would be death. But they feared death, especially after their failed attempt by jumping down Mount Ebott, and the multiple times they had died and been revived during their adventures Underground. 

 

They prided themself for their determination, which was one thing that kept them alive while Underground. But Chara clearly has far more determination than they ever had. This same determination had kept them in this world as a soulless, bodiless spirit for hundreds of years, due to their sheer bitterness and spite against humanity and monsterkind. 

 

Frisk could not hope to compete against it.

 

‘There is no point in trying to act so pure in front of everyone, if they ever knew what you did in the other timelines, do you think there will still be love for you from them?’ continued Chara, enjoying themself thoroughly, ‘Sans seems to retain a bit of memory from those timelines, did you not see how his expression changed when you told him about me? That dark, angry expression, the same one he gave us just before his battles. He would hate us if he discovered our plan!’

 

‘Y...your plan.’

 

‘ _ Our _ plan! Stop denying it, Frisk. What about Toriel? Or Asgore? Oh, their precious children are now hell-bent on destroying the world! One they had lost for centuries, and one they had almost killed. They will be disappointed, pained at our actions. Do you think they will still love us if they knew, Frisk? Oh, and what about Undyne? She would be furious if she ever knows about our plans, and will forget her friendship with you to attempt to kill us. Alphys, too, will try do all she can to stop us, perhaps even kill us if she could. The rest of your friends would fear us. Mettaton, Napstablook, Monster Kid, Gerson, the Doggi...all of them. Do you think they will still have any love for you if they ever find out about how we destroyed them and their world multiple times?’

 

The inevitable doom was becoming more and more apparent to Frisk.

 

‘Oh, once again i forgot Papyrus.’ Chara giggled, ‘Of course I would, he’s so forgettable after all. I am not sure if he is able to recall the past timelines, but he if is not able to, would he still believe in you so much? Would he still give you that silly little speech about believing we can do better, and attempt to give us a hug as if it would change anything?’

 

‘He...never gave up. He kept believing in us…’

 

‘And if he were able to remember the timelines.’ Chara ignored them completely, ‘it appears he does not have much faith in us, despite what he claims.’

 

Frisk could almost feel Chara’s grin widen. ‘What...do you mean?’

 

‘Look at the windows.’

 

Almost obediently, Frisk got up and headed towards the windows of the room, threading over the floor carefully in the dark. They could barely see out the windows due to there being no electric lights outside. There was only the very pale natural light that shone down from the holes in the ceiling of the cave, high above the Underground. 

 

As their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw that the window had been barred up from the outside with several long, milky white columns. 

 

Bones.

 

Papyrus had secretly barricaded their windows with his bone attacks.

 

They took a step back, and swiftly headed to the door, still treading lightly and carefully. They tried to doorknob. It turned smoothly, and they sighed in relief. 

 

However, when they swung open the door, more bones greeted them. They were much longer this time, and completely blocked them from exiting through the doorway.

 

Frisk shut the door, not even bothering to be silent in their horror. They slumped against the door, staring blankly into the darkness.

 

In the other room, Papyrus shifted slightly. He had heard Frisk move to the windows, and then to door. He also could hear them opening the door gently, and closing it quickly. They must have discovered the bones. 

 

He was hoping they wouldn’t. It was not pleasant to be trapped in by someone you trust so much, by someone who claimed they believed in you no matter what. 

 

It had to be done, he thought to himself, for everyone’s safety.

 

But, did it really have to be this way?

 

Was trapping Frisk and the spirit like this the only way? Didn’t he always told them that he believed in them? Was he just lying to them?

 

Lying to himself?

 

This dilemma and confusion continued to keep him wide awake.

 

Frisk was still leaning against the door, feeling defeated. ‘He does not have hope in us, what more the rest of the monsters if they knew?’ Chara sounded smug, triumphant. 

 

Frisk slid down the door, and sat in foetal position with their back still against the door. ‘He hasn’t killed us. He could have killed us. He could have killed me, but he didn’t. He still believes in us.’

 

‘He is too weak to do that. Has he ever killed us even once in any of the timelines?’

 

Frisk remained silent. Chara, still smug over being able to break Frisk, fell silent as well. 

  
And not another word was exchanged between them for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update, I was busy with university projects and some emotional issues, but I'm back, and I will try to update as consistently as possible. Sorry for the long wait.


	7. Burnt Breakfast

‘GOOD MORNING, FRISK!’

 

A loud knocking on the door and the ear-piercing voice of the skeleton jolted Frisk awake. They shot up from the carpet, sitting up and rubbing their eyes sleepily.

 

‘I AM PREPARING BREAKFAST IN THE KITCHEN! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO WASH UP AND COME DOWNSTAIRS TO HAVE A WHOLESOME, HEALTHY BREAKFAST, MADE LOVINGLY BY YOURS TRULY! I ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL ENJOY THE MEAL THOROUGHLY.’ they heard Papyrus’ footsteps moving away from the door and down the stairs.

 

They realized that they had been sleeping on the carpet right beside the door, where they had sat down after noticing the bones on the window and the door. They must have fallen asleep eventually.

 

The bones? Were they still there?

 

They checked. Yes, it seemed like those at the window were still in place, but the ones at the door had vanished. 

 

They headed to the bathroom to wash up and change. For whatever reason, the bathroom was a secret door in the wall of Papyrus’ room, that they had never noticed before despite having visited this house multiple times in different timelines. They were thankful that there was still running water in the bathroom, although the water was freezing cold.

 

When they were done and went downstairs, they saw Papyrus and Flowey in the kitchen. Papyrus was cooking something over the stove, while Flowey was in his flowerpot beside Papyrus, talking to him. There was a delicious, warm smell in the air, wafting out from the kitchen. 

 

As it turns out, the “wholesome, healthy breakfast” were stacks of pancakes, fried bacon, oatmeal, and a glass of milk each. This didn’t strike Frisk as being very “wholesome”, but everything still looked delicious, and there were no vegetables in sight. So they settled down on the couch, clearing Flowey’s pillows and blanket away and helped to lay out the plates and cutlery again.

 

‘HAD A GOOD NIGHT’S REST?’ asked Papyrus, putting some butter, a bottle of syrup and pots of jam on the table, not noticing that Flowey was stealthy eating some of the pancakes he had left in the kitchen, gulping them down one at a time.

 

Frisk nodded, deciding to lie, and tried their best to smile at him. They felt exhausted from the lack of sleep, and could barely concentrate on what they were doing. They tried not to show it, and spread generous helpings of butter, syrup, and jam over their pancakes. After the first mouthful, they realized they didn’t have much of an appetite. It wasn’t because the pancakes tasted bad, the pancakes were surprisingly delicious, and they would have enjoyed it at any other moment. They were just too tired and stressed out at that time to eat.

 

Papyrus didn’t notice this, as he gone back to the kitchen. He noticed the empty plate where the other pancakes used to be, and Flowey sitting beside it trying to look innocent despite the crumbs still present on his petals. 

 

‘FLOWEY!’ he exclaimed, lifting up his arms in dismay, as Flowey continued to look innocent. 

 

The skeleton gazed at the plate in disappointment for a while, but he quickly cheered up. ‘IT IS ALRIGHT, I SHALL SIMPLY MAKE MORE.’ he said as he poured more pancake batter into the frying pan over the stove, ‘I WAS ABOUT TO COOK YOUR PANCAKES ANYWAY, WOULD YOU LIKE MORE PANCAKES, FLOWEY?’ he asked, causing Flowey to look rather guilty. 

 

‘DON’T BE SAD, FLOWEY! TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN! OUR TIME OF BONDING AND FRIENDSHIP HERE SHALL BE FANTASTICAL, FASCINATING AND FUN! FUNTASTINATING, IF YOU WILL.’ Papyrus grinned to himself as he spoke, trying to cheer Flowey up. He turned his attention back to the frying pan, flipping over the pancake with a spatula.

 

‘Yes, a fun time being trapped in a house underground, with a disillusional skeleton. Sounds like a  _ great _ time to me.’ came a voice from outside the kitchen.

 

Papyrus froze, dropping his spatula, which clattered onto the floor. He did not move to pick it up, he did not move at all. 

 

Flowey froze as well, but found himself shaking in terror. That voice, he has not heard it in years, centuries. It was the voice of someone he missed, someone he had wished to be reunited with for so long. 

 

But yet he dreaded the sound of that voice, he feared the source of the voice as he remembered that horrible grin they had given him back underground, and the cold blade slicing into his stem and roots again and again and again. 

 

He sunk down into his flower pot, whimpering in terror.

 

‘Oh? I suppose you did not expect to hear my voice outside Frisk’s mind, did you?’ Frisk was standing at the doorway of the kitchen, but it wasn’t them talking. They had an expression of terror, both hands covering their mouth, fearful tears filling their eyes. They were struggling, physically struggling with something inside them. 

 

Despite their attempts to keep their mouth closed, their hands were constantly being dragged away from their mouth, and the voice that wasn’t theirs left their throat regardless.

 

‘Do you really think you can keep me trapped down here?’

 

Still Papyrus did not move. His back was still turned and facing the doorway, so his expression was not visible. The smell of burnt pancake filled the air, but he still reminded silent and stiff.

 

‘I have already been imprisoned underground for centuries, yearning for an escape, for a way to reach the surface and destroy everything. And now that I have finally found a way out through Frisk’s body, I will not allow you to snatch this opportunity away from me!’

 

Chara truly was growing stronger. All this while Frisk was able to stop them from speaking through them, stop them from using their body. They were usually able to run away and hide until Chara gave up wrestling away control from them. But now they couldn’t stop Chara, and Chara had manage to gain control of their hands and mouth. 

 

Perhaps being exhausted from the mental torture and the lack of sleep last night contributed to their inability to resist Chara. 

 

However, they still tried. Their voice came out as a faint gurgle from beneath Chara’s at first, before they finally manage to shriek, ‘ _ No!! _ ’

 

‘Oh be quiet, Frisk! We have wasted enough time! We should have started destroying this world by now as we agreed to. But first, we must rid ourselves of a certain irritating skeleton before we can leave this place.’

 

‘I won’t let you hurt Papyrus or Flowey!! Or anyone else on the surface!!’ Frisk’s voice sounded like a strangled, high-pitched squeak, ‘We’re not going to kill-’

 

‘Remember what we talked about last night, do you think anyone would still love you or care about you if they knew?’ Chara’s voice interrupted theirs, ‘Listen to  _ me _ ! We have endured much together, we are loyal partners filled with the same kind of determination.’

 

‘No!’ whimpered Frisk, tears streaming down their face, ‘No no no no no…’

 

Before either of them could continue fighting over the body, they found themselves swept up in Papyrus’ arms and dropped onto the couch. Papyrus was now standing over them, looking distressed and worried. The smell of burning pancake was growing stronger in the air.

 

Frisk and Chara were surprised by his swift motion, and simply laid back against the couch, stunned. 

 

‘PLEASE, SPIRIT. DO NOT TORMENT FRISK.’ he pleaded.

 

Chara’s voice piped up before Frisk could stop them, ‘Get lost, you are in our way.’

 

‘WE SHALL TALK, SPIRIT. LET’S HAVE A NICE CHAT OVER BREAKFAST AND YOU CAN TELL ME WHY YOU INSIST ON DOING A VIOLENCE ON EVERYONE. DOESN’T THAT SOUND LOVELY?’

 

‘Oh, shut up. You are simply going to try and convince me to not hurt anyone, are you not? You will attempt to give me a “hug of acceptance” and say that you believe in me. I know exactly what you are about to do.’

 

Papyrus took a step back, taken aback by this statement.

 

‘How stupid can you be? Do you think just believing in me and attempting to befriend me can change my mind!? This is not one of your cute little children’s books or TV shows where everything can be solved by holding hands and tea parties. Do you not know that saying?’ Chara forced Frisk to glance over at Flowey, who was fearfully peering out of the kitchen, ‘ “In this world, it’s kill or be killed”.’

 

‘No!’ Frisk manage to take control of their voice again, ‘Don’t listen to them, Papyrus! Please!!’

 

‘Fortunately for you, Frisk has not allowed me to gain complete control over their body yet, or I would be fighting and killing you at this very moment.’ Chara made Frisk look up at Papyrus. It felt uncanny staring into Frisk’s expression of pure fear and desperation, while such a cruel voice came from their lips. ‘In all honesty, I am curious to see what your next course of action will be. You are so determined not to kill me, and I can guarantee that talking to me will solve nothing. The longer you hesitate, the more control I gain over Frisk. Such a dilemma, is it not? How indeed will “The Great Papyrus” solve this conundrum?’ They laughed at him mockingly.

 

‘Let go of Frisk!’ came Flowey’s shriek from the kitchen, ‘And leave Papyrus alone!’ Flowey was surprised at himself for suddenly caring so deeply about his friends that he dared to speak up against Chara.

 

‘You had better be quiet as well!’ Chara yelled back in response, ‘You are next right after we deal with the skeleton, even though we shall gain no EXP from you, you are still in our way. Why not utilize your “friendliness pellets” against us if you are so courageous?’ 

 

No, no he couldn’t. Flowey realized that he had grown so fond of Frisk that he could not bring himself to attack Frisk. He couldn’t. He mustn’t. 

 

The poor soulless flower continued to peer out of the kitchen, conflicted and terrified.

 

‘SPIRIT.’ said Papyrus, his voice sounded oddly stiff and strained, ‘WE SHALL TALK. ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED WHEN I WAS SMALL, A YOUNG BABY BONE.’

 

‘What!?’ Chara was furious. How dare the annoying skeleton remain so indignant and so unafraid of their threats!? They already stated countless times that they did not want to talk to him, and yet he still had the guts (in later days Chara would grin at the thought of this pun) to speak to them, telling them about himself!!? 

 

‘Get out of our way!! Don’t you dare-’

 

‘WHEN I WAS A YOUNG SKELETON, MY BROTHER SANS AND I DID NOT LIVE IN SNOWDIN.’ Papyrus began quickly, ignoring Chara’s protests, ‘WE USED TO LIVE IN HOTLAND. AH YES, I SUPPOSE I HAVE TOLD FRISK AND FLOWEY MANY TIMES HOW MUCH I HATE HOTLAND, BUT THAT IS A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME.’

 

‘ANYWAY, WE WERE BOTH NOT ALLOWED TO GO OUTDOORS. THE DOCTORS TOLD US THAT WE WERE TOO ILL TO LEAVE OUR ROOMS, AND WE HAD TO LISTEN TO THEM. SANS WAS VERY FRAIL, HE HAD MANY WIRES AND TUBES HOOKED UP TO HIS BODY. HE IS MUCH LESS FRAIL NOW, OF COURSE, AND HE WOULD BE MUCH STRONGER PHYSICALLY IF ONLY HE TOOK THE EFFORT TO EXERCISE AND TRAIN.’ here Papyrus frowned a little, which would have been amusing in any other situation. He still sounded rather stiff and unnatural, as if trying to force himself to remain calm.

 

‘AS FOR ME, I WAS...I WAS NOT WELL. THE DOCTORS OFTEN DID TESTS ON ME TO MAKE SURE I WAS HEALTHY. THEY NEVER LET ME LEAVE MY ROOM. BUT ONE DAY, ONE OF THE DOCTORS LET ME VISIT SANS. IT WAS A VERY PLEASANT DAY FOR ME, AND FOR THE BOTH OF US. I FINALLY MADE A FRIEND FOR THE FIRST TIME. SANS TOOK GOOD CARE OF ME, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS SICK. HE PLAYED WITH ME AND GAVE ME A LOT OF HUGS AND PETS. HE READ BOOKS TO ME, AND TAUGHT ME HOW TO SPEAK AND READ. IN THE END, THE DOCTOR LET US STAY TOGETHER IN THE SAME ROOM.’

 

Papyrus paused for a while, he seemed to be growing less tensed.

 

‘Are you done?’ asked Chara drily, only marginally interested in Papyrus’ story.

 

‘THE LONGER WE STAYED TOGETHER, THE LESS SICK WE BECAME.’ continued Papyrus, ‘SANS WAS ALLOWED TO MOVE AROUND WITHOUT MOST OF THE WIRES AND TUBES STUCK INTO HIM. I FELT BETTER AS WELL. BUT WE WERE BULLIED A LOT BACK THEN. WE ENDED UP WITH A LOT OF INJURIES. I REMEMBER THAT SANS HAD TO BE IMMEDIATELY ATTACHED TO THE WIRES AND TUBES AGAIN WHEN HE WAS INJURED. I WAS FINE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS STRONG EVEN AS A BABY BONES AND I COULD ENDURE MUCH TURMOIL AND TORTURE. I HAD NO FEAR TOWARDS A FEW BRUISES AND FRACTURES. BUT SANS…’ 

 

‘ANYWAY, WE PROTECTED EACH OTHER A LOT. WE WERE ALWAYS THERE FOR EACH OTHER. SANS WAS ALWAYS DEFENSIVE OVER ME. AND I TOOK GOOD CARE OF HIM AND PROTECTED HIM BECAUSE HE WAS SO FRAIL. THEN, THE DOCTOR, THE SAME ONE WHO PUT US INTO THE SAME ROOM TOGETHER, DECIDED TO SEPARATE US.’

 

Again Papyrus paused, now seemingly waiting for a response. He spoke almost naturally, without the initial stiffness.

 

‘What happened?’ Chara found themself asking, but they quickly added, ‘And why are you informing us about this?’

 

‘I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO HEAR A STORY ABOUT MY BROTHER AND I SUFFERING, SINCE YOU APPEAR TO ENJOY COMMITTING VIOLENCES AND DESTRUCTION.’

 

Chara couldn’t tell if Papyrus was being sarcastic or not. He spoke so naturally and had his usual innocent grin. They were not sure if they should be angry or amused at this statement.

 

‘AS I WAS SAYING, THE DOCTOR PUT US BACK INTO SEPARATE ROOMS. WE WERE DEVASTATED. WE BOTH FELL ILL AGAIN. SANS COULD ONLY LAY IN BED, ONCE AGAIN ATTACHED TO ALL THOSE WIRES AND TUBES. AND I ONLY LEANED AGAINST MY ROOM DOOR, SCRATCHING IT AND BANGING AT IT, CRYING AND YELLING…’

 

Chara was so engrossed with this story that they did not even notice Frisk fighting and gaining back control of their body.

 

‘I WAS SICK AGAIN, AND I WANTED MY BROTHER SO BADLY. I WANTED TO HEAR HIM READ STORIES TO ME AND PLAY WITH HIM AGAIN.’ Despite his smile, Papyrus appeared to be getting emotional over his story, ‘I CRIED AND SCRATCHED AT THE DOOR. AND SANS TOLD ME LATER THAT HE TOO CRIED IN BED BECAUSE HE MISSED ME. IN THE END, BECAUSE WE WERE GETTING SO SICK, THE DOCTOR LET US STAY IN THE SAME ROOM AGAIN. WE WERE-’

 

Frisk suddenly gasped, like a drowning person gasping for fresh air upon reaching the surface. They jolted up from the couch, shivering, but looking relieved.

 

They clenched and unclenched their fists to make sure that they had control over their hands again. Then they signed to Papyrus, (They’re gone, for now.)

 

Papyrus sighed in relief, dropping down on the couch beside them. 

 

However, a loud yelp from Flowey made him leap to his feet, and at the same time he finally took notice of the smell of burnt pancake and the smoke that had began to fill the air. 

 

He dashed into the kitchen. There was now a fire raging over the pan on the stove he had forgotten to turn off. 

 

Flowey was desperately trying to move his flower pot and himself away from the flame. Papyrus picked up Flowey and practically threw him into the living room. 

 

Using his magic, he lifted the pan off the stove and dropped it onto the floor. He switched off the stove, summoned a long bone, and began attempting to put out the fire by slamming his bone attack onto the burning pan over and over.

 

It wasn’t the most efficient or the safest way to put out a fire, but it worked. Cooking lessons with Undyne may not have paid off in terms of culinary abilities, but it did train him to put out fires as quickly as possible.

 

He stood over the charred frying pan for a while, still holding the bone attack, shoulders slumped. The air was still thick with the awful burnt smell. 

 

Frisk stood by the kitchen door, holding Flowey in his flower pot, having picked up the flower after he was thrown out of the kitchen. 

 

They both saw a stressed, disappointed look on the skeleton’s face, but he quickly perked up and grinned at them when he noticed their stares.

 

‘THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS VICTORIOUS ONCE AGAIN!’ he declared, raising up his bone attack and posing triumphantly, ‘A FIRE IS NO MATCH FOR MY FIRE-EXTINGUISHING SKILLS! HOWEVER, NOW I SUPPOSE WE MUST FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO FRY OUR FOOD.’ He sighed, lowering his arm as his bone attack vanished. 

 

Frisk and Flowey didn’t respond, they had no idea how to after the shock of the fire and the even larger scare from Chara taking hold of Frisk’s body. 

 

Papyrus’ grin faded a little at the sight of their distressed expressions. ‘I...I SHALL CLEAN THIS MESS UP. IN THE MEANTIME YOU MAY CONTINUE EATING YOUR BREAKFAST, OR PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ SOME BOOKS? THERE ARE SOME STORYBOOKS IN MY BAG, YOU MAY READ THEM IF YOU LIKE.’

 

Frisk nodded blankly. They headed back to the couch and slumped back on it, placing Flowey back on the table. They felt too exhausted to do anything aside from staring at the wall ahead of them. 

 

Flowey simply alternated between gazing at them in silence, and turning to watch Papyrus attempt to clean the burn marks off the floor in the kitchen.

 

At any rate, none of them wanted any more breakfast that morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> =)


	8. Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the extremely late update. :p I was busy with an assignment at one point, and also lost any inspiration to continue the story. But, here it is. Not much happens in this chapter, but I hope you enjoy anyway.

‘Mum, don’t worry, okay? Papyrus is taking care of us. He made pancakes for us today.’ 

 

Flowey sat on the table, listening to Frisk as they spoke softly to Toriel on their phone.

 

‘Yes, they were delicious. Papyrus can cook pretty well now. Maybe he can cook for you one day when we go back home.’ If they ever were able to survive and go back to the surface, that is, ‘Me? Yeah, I’m feeling better mum.’ No, they weren’t. They were physically and emotionally exhausted, part of them wished they could lie down, cover their ears and their eyes, and shut out the world and Chara’s voice forever.

 

Flowey turned away from them and glanced at the balcony of the upper floor. He could hear Papyrus’ voice emitting from Sans room. He was on his phone as well, chatting loudly with his anxious brother.

 

‘OH YOU SHOULD HAVE TASTED THEM, BROTHER! THEY WERE THE BEST PANCAKES I HAVE EVER MADE!’ Papyrus didn’t want to mention how he burned a pancake and ruined his only frying pan, ‘OF COURSE! FRISK AND FLOWEY LOVED THEM. AFTER THIS I AM PLANNING TO DO SOME PUZZLES WITH THEM, THEN I SHALL-’

 

There was a pause. ‘DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE SPIRIT, BROTHER. EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL. I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SPEAK TO THEM, THEY ARE QUITE THE TALKER, I AM SURE I’LL BE ABLE TO MAKE A BREAKTHROUGH SOONER OR LATER! I DO HAVE MASTERFUL FRIENDSHIP SKILLS AFTER ALL!’

 

It surprised Flowey how good Papyrus was at lying through his teeth, while still sounding so bouncy and enthusiastic.

 

‘HOW’S THE KID? DO YOU MEAN FRISK OR FLOWEY? REGARDLESS, BOTH OF THEM ARE ALRIGHT. WE ARE HAVING A GOOD TIME HERE AND THERE ARE NO NEED FOR VISITS. WE SHALL RETURN HOME VERY SOON, PERHAPS IN A FEW DAYS.’

 

‘Yes, mom, my sickness isn’t bothering me so much anymore. I’ll be home soon, okay?’ 

 

Lies.

 

Flowey was impressed. He always thought that he was the master of telling lies while keeping a smile on his face, but listening to the blatant lies these two were telling was giving him second-thoughts.

 

Finally, Frisk put down their phone, sighing, and laid back on the couch. A little later, Papyrus came down the stairs. He grinned widely to Flowey and Frisk, but they noticed that his gait were not as bouncy as usual.

 

‘NOW, WITH CALLING OUR FAMILIES OUT OF THE WAY, WHAT SHALL WE DO BEFORE DINNER?’ he asked.

 

Well, sleep probably, thought Frisk. They were still exhausted, even more so after the struggle with Chara. At the same time, they realized they wouldn’t be able to sleep with so many conflicting thoughts in their mind, made even more muddled by Chara still yelling at them in their head.

 

Maybe a nice walk outside would clear their head. The crisp snow and cold air could help them feel less tired. They also wondered what the rest of the underground looked like after six months. 

 

(Can we go for a walk?) they signed.

 

‘A WALK? OF COURSE, FRISK! THERE IS NOT MUCH SPACE TO WALK AROUND IN THIS HOUSE, BUT WE CAN WALK UP THE STAIRS AND DOWN A-’

 

(No, I meant a walk outside the house. In the snow.) signed Frisk.

 

Papyrus froze. ‘OUTSIDE?’

 

Frisk nodded, as Flowey stared curiously at the sudden change in Papyrus.

 

‘WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO GO TO THE OUTSIDE? THERE IS ENOUGH SPACE FOR A WALK HERE AND ENOUGH ENTERTAINMENT FOR ALL OF US. I BROUGHT STORYBOOKS, SKETCHBOOKS, PUZZLE BOOKS, COLORING BOOKS, ALL KINDS OF INTERESTINGLY INSIGHTFUL BOOKS! OR PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO WATCH A MOVIE? OR MAKE A PUZZLE WITH ME?’

 

(I just want some fresh air, and to stretch my legs a little.)

 

‘AH, BUT,’ Papyrus seemed to be getting more uncomfortable, ‘THE UNDERGROUND IS NOT SAFE. THERE HAVE BEEN NO MONSTERS OR MAGIC TO REPAIR THE STRUCTURES AND BUILDINGS, SO THEY COULD COLLAPSE AT ANY MOMENT! AND WHO KNOWS WHAT COULD BE OUT THERE? WHAT SORT OF DASTARDLY DANGERS AND DISASTERS COULD HAPPEN? IT IS SAFER TO STAY INDOORS, FRISK.’

 

Frisk frowned, raising an eyebrow. (Why do you want us to stay indoors so badly?)

 

‘TO KEEP BOTH OF YOU SAFE.’

‘Is it because you don’t want me to go outside?’

 

‘NO! OF COURSE NOT!’ 

 

‘You blocked off all the doors and windows, didn’t you?’

 

Papyrus did not reply.

 

Frisk stood up, looking indignant, and strided over to the front door. Papyrus watched helplessly as they threw open the door, revealing long bones stuck across the doorframe like bars of a cage. Unlike the bars he set up near the Ruins and in his shed back when monsters were still trapped Underground, a long time ago, the gaps between these bars were narrow, much too small for Frisk to squeeze through. 

 

Flowey looked stunned, he knew nothing about how Papyrus had trapped Frisk in their room the night before. 

 

Frisk slammed the door shut, turned swiftly, and moved to the window, their footsteps heavy. They violently drew the back the curtains, revealing more bones placed across the window.

 

‘I saw bones across my window and my room door last night too.’ added Frisk, staring hard at Papyrus, who looked down, fidgeting uncomfortably.

 

Flowey turned to Papyrus in disbelief. ‘Papyrus…?’ he began, but wasn’t sure how to continue.

 

‘Why are you keeping me trapped in here? And I can’t even go outside for a walk?’ Frisk questioned furiously, now glaring at Papyrus, ‘Are you afraid I’ll run away and start killing people?’

 

‘FRISK, IT ISN’T THAT, I JUST WANTED TO KEEP US SAFE IN HERE.’

 

‘The Underground is _ empty _ , Papyrus! What kind of things could try to break in here!?’

 

‘I WAS SIMPLY SETTING UP SOME EXTRA SAFETY MEASURES-’

 

‘Stop it, we all know you’re lying.’ Frisk shook their head, ‘And I didn’t even think you could lie, until a few days ago, until now. You were always so straightforward and blunt. You even told me you didn’t like to lie, back then in one of your phone calls. Was that a lie as well?’

 

Papyrus could not bring himself to reply or look at Frisk.

 

‘Was...saying that you believed in me, no matter what, a lie too?’ 

 

Papyrus looked up immediately, horrified, ‘NO! OF COURSE NOT. I ALWAYS BELIEVED IN YOU. I BELIEVE IN EVERYONE. EVERYONE CAN BE GOOD IF THEY TRY.’

 

‘You’re...you’re still lying, aren’t you?’ Frisk sounded hurt, their expression going from furious to disappointed.

 

‘NO, I-’

 

‘Then why did you block off the doors and windows?’

 

There was no reply.

 

‘You’re...afraid I’ll lose control and go back to the surface to kill monsters, aren’t you? You even told the spirit that you believed in them, but you’re still worried they’ll take over. I only want to go for a walk, I’m not even going to leave Snowdin, and you can’t even let me do that!?’

 

Again, no reply.

 

Frisk turned away from Papyrus, hurt and disgusted, their hands balled up in fists. ‘I’m...going to bed.’ they said, and stomped up the stairs back to their room, shutting the door behind them with a bang.

 

Papyrus remained completely motionless for a while, before slowly slumping down onto the couch. He looked miserable, and the strange, hollow expression had returned to his face. 

 

There was a long, awkward silence between all of them for a while. Frisk did not make a sound from the room, and Papyrus kept completely still as he slumped into the couch. Flowey shifted around in his flowerpot uneasily.

 

‘You...blocked off the doors and windows...to prevent Frisk from leaving?’ Flowey finally asked.

 

‘Yes, I did.’ replied Papyrus, his voice unusually soft and strained.

 

‘Do you really think they might sneak out to kill everyone?’

 

Papyrus kept silent, looking away from Flowey.

 

‘You know,’ Flowey said in a sickly sweet voice, tilting his head and grinning maliciously, ‘This isn’t something I would expect of you, Papyrus! You always seem so sweet and compliant. You let people do whatever they want. And yet, you trapped all of us down here, without telling us too! Don’t you trust me either? Are you afraid I’ll kill people again too?’

 

‘I do trust you.’ Papyrus lifted an arm slowly to point at the front door, ‘The bars are wide enough for you to go through. If anything happens, I can just slide your flower pot out through the bars, and you can burrow into the ground and flee. Go to the surface quickly if that happens, okay? Don’t look back.’

 

Flowey’s grin vanished. ‘W...what!?’ 

 

‘Don’t come back here. They might harm you. You have to go back to the surface as fast as you can, and go back to Sans. Tell Sans what happened, but try to keep him from coming down here. I’m...not sure what you should tell Miss Toriel and Mr Dreemur.’

 

Flowey stayed in a stunned silence, barely processing what Papyrus was telling them.

 

‘So it’s only Frisk you don’t trust!?’ he finally asked.

 

‘I  _ do _ trust them! It’s just that, I am worried the spirit might...’ Papyrus’ voice trailed off, ‘And yet, I told the spirit that I believed in them. I told Frisk so many times I believed in them. But I still have doubts, I still barricaded the doors and windows. I…’ he seemed to be talking to himself now, ‘...do I...really believe in them? If I did, I would trust in them wholey. If I believed that the spirit would change their mind, I would not be so fearful of it taking over Frisk and escaping. I...I...don’t know. I don’t know, Flowey. I do trust Frisk and yet…’ He buried his face in his hands.

 

‘But what about yourself!? Aren’t you going to leave if something bad happens!? ...wait, you can use shortcuts, can’t you?’ Flowey looked a little relieved.

 

‘I can, but,’ Papyrus lifted his head from his hands, ‘I cannot leave Frisk and the spirit here, all alone. They will starve, or hurt themselves. I will have to stay with them and see what I can do.’

 

‘But if the spirit does take over Frisk and they become violent, you’ll be all alone with them! They will _ kill _ you, Papyrus. You can’t stay here on your own!’

 

‘I’m...afraid I must, Flowey. If I allow them to roam free, they might find a way to kill everyone. I believe in them, but…’ Papyrus shook his head, and continued, ‘It would be cruel to leave them trapped all alone down here. They would eventually die, all alone. I must try to convince the spirit to change somehow, and I will not leave this place until I do.’

 

‘Then maybe killing them is an option.’ These words slipped out before Flowey could stop himself. He felt horrified at his own words. How could he simply suggest to kill them!? Back then, before the barrier was broken, he would not have thought twice about killing anyone. But now he had grown attached to Frisk, the idea of killing them was unthinkable.

 

‘FLOWEY!? I CAN’T KILL THEM, YOU KNOW I CAN’T DO THAT!’ Papyrus cried out in horror. He looked down, his voice growing soft again, ‘It is not in me to kill anyone, and I can’t bring myself to do it. Besides, it would be no use.’

 

Papyrus had buried his face in his hands again, and stayed motionless in this position.

 

Flowey had backed away during his outburst, but now leaned over to the skeleton. It was sad to see the skeleton in such a miserable, hopeless state, being so conflicted with his own decisions. 

 

The flower wrapped one of his vines around Papyrus’ left arm, attempting to comfort him. Papyrus stiffened, and flinched away from the vines. Flowey noticed a look of utter terror in his eye sockets for a split second. 

 

However, he relaxed, and allowed the flower to wind the vine around his arm. Flowey tried to be as gentle as possible, and petted Papyrus’ shoulder tenderly.

 

‘It’s not your fault.’ Flowey said, leaning close to him.

 

No response.

 

‘They...did lose control after all. You were just trying to protect yourself, and everyone else. Don’t blame yourself being careful.’

 

Flowey leaned against Papyrus, still petting him. It was a bit awkward, but Papyrus felt grateful for his attempt at comforting him. 

 

It wasn’t like Flowey to offer sympathy towards someone. He really was trying his best to be good, despite finding it hard to feel positive emotions without a SOUL.

 

Eventually Papyrus stood up, giving Flowey a grin that seemed a little too forced. ‘PERHAPS WE SHOULD DO A PUZZLE TO TAKE OUR MINDS OFF THIS.’ his voice had gone back to being loud and jovial. 

 

Flowey released him from his vines, feeling suspicious over his sudden change in demeanor.

 

‘I BROUGHT A LOT OF PUZZLES ALONG! WE CAN TRY TO SOLVE SOME OF THEM TOGETHER!’ Papyrus had already headed over to a cardbox box he had left in the corner of the room, and began rummaged through it.

 

‘You went from being sad to cheerful way to quickly,’ remarked Flowey, frowning, ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

 

‘DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ME FLOWEY!’ Papyrus was careful not to turn around to face Flowey, ‘I AM ALRIGHT! ALL I NEED IS A PUZZLE. PUZZLES ALWAYS PUT MY MIND AT EASE!’

 

Flowey was a child after all, he couldn’t burden a child with his problems, could he? No, he had to deal with this himself. He must not worry Flowey, and if things went south, he has to make sure Flowey was safe as well. He had to deal with Frisk and the spirit himself, no matter how stressful it was.

 

He brought a few ball puzzles back to the table, beaming at Flowey. The puzzles were the kinds that involved various plastic structures with holes in them, built into a small clear plastic cube. The goal was to get one or more silver ball bearings into the holes by turning and twisting the puzzle. ‘WE CAN SOLVE THESE PUZZLES TOGETHER, FLOWEY! ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS GET THESE BALL BEARINGS INTO THE HOLES! IT IS NOT HARD ONCE YOU LEARN HOW TO DO IT!’

 

Flowey pouted, but gave up questioning Papyrus for now. At least Papyrus seemed happier when he distracted himself with solving puzzles.

 

An hour or so later, Flowey began yawning, and Papyrus immediately announced that it was bedtime. Despite his protests, Papyrus laid out pillows on the couch, and gently placed a blanket over Flowey. He then bade Flowey goodnight and retreated to Sans’ bedroom. 

 

There was no noise from Frisk’s room at all during this time. Papyrus hoped this meant that they were asleep.

 

Like the night before, Flowey scowled and moped around for a while, before eventually feeling sleepy under the warm blanket. Once again he stretched out over the couch, laid his ‘head’ on a pillow, and dozed off.

 

However, Papyrus couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned in his sleeping bag for what seemed like hours, worry clouding his mind and preventing him from dozing off. Eventually, he got up and began pacing back and forth in Sans’ room, ignoring how tired he was. 

  
He continued to pace until morning arrived, unable to rest at all.


	9. Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to upload more frequently, at least one chapter a week. My exams are coming soon, however, so I'm not sure how frequently I can keep this schedule up.
> 
> Short chapter, but I hope you enjoy it.

Papyrus looked exhausted the next morning.

 

Flowey was sitting on the kitchen countertop. He noted how Papyrus did not rush around the kitchen while cooking breakfast, or cheerfully hum to himself like he did the day before. He also spoke much less, and most of the time there was total silence between them.

 

Breakfast today did not seem as good as the one before. There was oatmeal, of course, and toast. Papyrus somehow had it in his head to bring his toaster all the way here. He was also boiling eggs in a saucepan. An omelette would have been a more delicious option, but he couldn’t cook one with his frying pan destroyed.

 

As Flowey racked his brains to think of something to say to Papyrus, the silence getting a bit too awkward for him, he heard a door open and slam shut above him. Frisk must be up.

 

Has Frisk already forgiven Papyrus and decided to come down for breakfast with them? That was a surprise. They had refused to eat dinner with Papyrus the night before. Maybe a good night’s rest helped to clear their head. 

 

‘Good morning, Papyrus and Flowey!’

 

Flowey was startled by Frisk’s shrill voice. They were standing by the kitchen entrance, smiling sweetly with their head tilted slightly. 

 

Papyrus turned slightly from the stove, and grinned at them. ‘GOOD MORNING, FRISK. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO HAVE A SEAT. BREAKFAST WILL BE READY IN FIVE MINUTES.’

 

‘Oh, but I am hungry now.’ Frisk walked into the kitchen, and looked over the kitchenware Papyrus had placed on the countertops, ‘Can I not help you with something?’

 

‘NO, DO NOT FRET, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS BREAKFAST COVERED.’ Papyrus declared. He seemed to cheer up a little and stirred his saucepan of oatmeal with more gusto, ‘TAKE A SEAT ON THE COUCH, I WILL BE DONE SOON.’

 

Frisk seemingly ignored him, and began looking into some of the drawers. What were they doing? Flowey wondered to himself, they seemed rather excited about something…

 

Flowey’s confusion turned to panic when he saw Frisk pull something glinting and metallic from one of the shelves, as a very familiar looking grin spread across their face. 

 

‘Papyrus!! LOOK OUT!!’ he shrieked.

 

His warning was just in time. Papyrus turned around, unsuspecting. He barely managed to dodge as Frisk suddenly rushed at him, the knife in their hand raised.

 

‘FRISK!?’ he exclaimed in terror. He then noticed the terrifying expression they had on their face, ‘SPIRIT!?’

 

Frisk (???) giggled, ‘It appears that we have been discovered, Frisk, I should have been more cautious with my movements. Nevertheless, you,’ they pointed their knife at Papyrus and Flowey, ‘WILL die this time. No longer shall you pull your SOUL away from me, this time, I shall fight you, and kill you, just as I have done before!’

 

‘FRISK! YOU MUST TRY TO FIGHT OFF THE SPIRIT’S INFLUENCE! THEY HAVE NO POWER OVER YOU! I BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THEM!’ Papyrus called out, hoping that Frisk could hear him.

 

Chara simply laughed, ‘Oh, you  _ are _ an amusing one. I have dreadful news for you, Papyrus, Frisk is on my side. They are supporting every decision and every action I make. All because of  _ you _ .  _ You _ lied to them about believing in them, and instead distrusted them so much that you trapped them within this house with your bone attacks! They have decided to join me instead. Is this not correct, Frisk?’

 

Out from their mouth came Frisk’s own voice, sounding faint and hopeless, ‘Yes. What’s the point anymore? They’re going to destroy the world anyway, no matter what I do.’

 

‘FRISK! PLEASE DO NOT SAY THAT! I SHALL FIND A WAY TO-’

 

‘And besides, if you already don’t trust in me now, you will hate me even more if you ever knew what I did in the past. I did horrible things, over and over again. No one will love me anymore if they ever knew. Toriel, Asgore, Sans, Undyne, Alphys...they will all be disgusted and hate me. I can’t be redeemed.’ their voice began to grow as malicious as Chara’s, ‘So, why not give up? I’ve decided to join them in destroying the world. There’s nothing left that I can do.’

 

Papyrus fell into a stunned silence.

 

‘There you go. You have heard it from them personally.’ Chara added smugly, taking a step closer to Papyrus.

 

‘FRISK! Come on!! Who cares about what you’ve done!?’ shouted Flowey, sounding brave despite how utterly terrified he was, ‘Don’t give in to them now!! What about that determination you have!? You can still do something about this! Isn’t that right Papy...rus?’

 

Flowey’s voice trailed off when he turned to look at Papyrus. There was a strange, darkened expression on his face. There was a glint of light in one of his eye sockets, growing brighter by the moment. He was slowly shifting his stance, straightening his back, preparing himself for what was to come next.

 

‘Do not interrupt!’ Chara glared at Flowey, ‘You are a nuisance, I will have to rid you from this world as well, even though you are worthless to us as you do not possess a soul, and cannot supply us with the EXP we need. But you are burden and in our way, so you must be eliminated.’ Flowey felt a little hurt by Chara’s bluntness.

 

‘But, first, we must deal with the current issue at hand.’

 

They rushed at Papyrus again, moving so inhumanly quick that Flowey barely had time to shriek. Papyrus, on the other hand, was ready for them. 

 

Their knife was inches away from his neck before they found themselves flung backwards, into the air. It took them a few seconds to realize that they were suspended in midair, unable to move. Papyrus was holding out one hand towards them, and their SOUL was now glowing deep blue.

 

Papyrus lowered his arm, placing the child on the ground in a seated position. They struggled against the blue magic, but could barely even move their limbs. This was far stronger than any blue attack Papyrus had ever used on Frisk. At least one could still jump with that attack, now they could hardly move. Their body felt heavy, as if the gravitational pull on every part of their body had increased.

 

Bones shot up from the ground around where they sat, surrounding them, caging them in. These bones were like nothing they have ever seen. The tips of the bones were sharp and jagged, like bones broken by being smashed by a hammer. Some of the bones looked strange, curving inwards towards them, as if threatening to stab them.

 

Flowey was also taken by surprise. He glanced over at Papyrus, and shuddered. 

 

That expression...he had never expected to see such a terrible expression on someone he had always known to be sweet-natured and full of love for everyone.

 

But the dark expression soon vanished. Papyrus gasped, shuddered, and shook his head. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to regain his composure. As he did, the bones around the child shifted to look less malicious and jagged. 

 

Whatever had came over him was gone when he opened his eyes. He gazed at Chara sadly, ‘I AM AFRAID I SHALL HAVE TO LOCK YOU IN MY ROOM, SPIRIT AND FRISK. I CAN’T ALLOW YOU TO KILL ME OR FLOWEY, OR ESCAPE BACK TO THE SURFACE TO KILL ANY MONSTER OR HUMAN.’

 

He managed to give them a watery grin, ‘BUT DO NOT WORRY, I SHALL STILL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU. I WILL GIVE YOU EXCELLENT MEALS AND ENTERTAINMENT. WE CAN HAVE A FINE TIME CHATTING, GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER.’

 

‘Release me!’ shouted Chara, still unable to move.

 

‘I APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR DISCOMFORT, SPIRIT, BUT I CANNOT.’

 

‘Let us go!’ came Frisk’s voice, sounding equally frustrated.

 

Papyrus looked pained upon hearing Frisk’s voice. ‘I AM SORRY, BUT SINCE YOU HAVE MADE UP YOUR MIND TO BE VIOLENT, I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO LEAVE.’

 

The bones surrounding them vanished. Papyrus lifted them up with his blue magic, and carried them out of the kitchen.

 

‘WAIT FOR ME THERE, FLOWEY.’ he called over his shoulder to Flowey as he walked up the stairs, still keeping the child suspended in mid air beside him. They kicked, struggled, and yelled, but nothing they did allowed them to escape from his magic.

 

They were dropped into Papyrus’ room, the room Frisk was staying in. Bones materialized across the doorway, caging them inside the room.

 

Papyrus headed back down the stairs again, ignoring their screams and insults. They attempted to grab the bone bars to shake them, but cried out in pain as the bones still hurt them the same way regular bone attacks did. Flowey watched as he walked back into the kitchen, looking distressed, but still having the right mind to turn off the stove this time. He clearly wasn’t enjoying what he was doing to the child.

 

‘What are we gonna do now?’ asked Flowey, gazing at Papyrus with an unreadable expression, ‘We can’t just leave them in there, and there’s no way they’ll listen to what you’ll say to them.’

 

Papyrus opened the fridge, and pulled out the small box he had carefully placed on the top shelf of the fridge. ‘I HAVE A “SECRET WEAPON” THAT WAS RESERVED FOR EMERGENCIES SUCH AS THIS.’ he said, ‘I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT IT WOULD WORK. WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME WITH ME TO SEE?’ 

 

Curiosity overtook Flowey. He nodded. Papyrus picked up his flowerpot and held him carefully in one hand, with the box in the other. He headed back upstairs.

 

The child was still yelling, raining insults down so harshly on Papyrus that even Flowey cringed. Papyrus completely ignored them, setting Flowey down on the floor beside him.

 

‘SPIRIT.’ he addressed, holding up the box, ‘IF YOU ARE GOOD AND LISTEN TO ME AS I TALK, I SHALL REWARD YOU WITH THIS.’

 

‘Nothing you can offer us is worth anything!’ shouted Chara, ‘Even your LIFE means utterly nothing to us aside from gaining free EXP! You are worthless and meaningless! Release us immediately, you absolute waste of space!!!’

 

Papyrus silently opened the box, and pulled out a bar of chocolate.

 

Chara froze.

 

Their attention was completely fixated on the chocolate.

 

They started drooling in spite of themself. Chocolate! And one of their favorite brands too! How long has it been since they last had chocolate? Not counting chocolate Frisk ate while they shared a body with them, it must have been hundreds of years.

 

Frisk also found themself completely drawn to the chocolate. They loved chocolate, but was not obsessed with it like Chara. However, it looked even more appealing than usual to them now since they were hungry from having no breakfast. 

 

‘GIVE IT TO ME!’ yelled Chara, attempting to reach through the bars to grab it.

 

Papyrus waved the bar of chocolate in front of them, just beyond their reach. ‘I SHALL ONLY OFFER IT TO YOU IF YOU CALM DOWN AND LISTEN TO ME.’

 

Chara groaned, pulling back their arm and glaring at Papyrus, ‘Fine! I shall ignore you the entire time as you speak, but I suppose you will not care and continue blabbing to me. Just hand me that bar of chocolate!’

 

Papyrus pushed the chocolate through the bars. Chara snatched it out of his hand, tore off the wrapper, and began greedily biting and chewing up the chocolate.

 

‘VERY WELL THEN, HAVE A SEAT, MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE.’ Papyrus sat down on the floor next to Flowey, who had been silently gaping the entire time. Chara flopped down onto the floor, still ravenously consuming the chocolate.

 

‘I SUPPOSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT ANOTHER STORY FROM MY PAST? YOU SEEMED RATHER INTERESTED IN THE LAST ONE I TOLD YOU ABOUT.’

 

‘Mmhh...,mmphh!’ Chara’s mouth was too full for them to reply.

 

‘THEN WE SHALL BEGIN!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chocolate: The best way to calm your inner demons.


	10. The Bullies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for not updating in such a long time. I was busy with projects and finals for the past month or so, and had no time to write or draw anything. :p
> 
> To make up for it, here's two chapters in one update. I'll try to be more consistent with my updates from now on. Once again I apologize.

Snowdin was a small town, with a small population of monsters. Most monsters preferred to live in Hotland or New Home. Because of this, there was only one school for all the monsters children of Snowdin.

A tiny skeleton child with an oversized scarf around his neck, tied into a huge bow behind him so that it would not drag across the floor, was rushing down the corridor, weaving between the crowd of school children.

 

He headed towards the locker room used by the older school children. There, another older skeleton in a rather baggy jacket was shoving a pile of books into his locker messily. The smaller skeleton headed straight for him, stopped behind him and shrieked.

 

‘SANS!’

 

The older skeleton turned, smiling sleepily at his younger brother, ‘sup, papyrus. how was school today?’

 

‘GOOD! I MADE A NICE DRAWING IN ART CLASS TODAY AND I WANTED TO SHOW IT TO YOU.’

 

He held up a sheet of paper. On it were three figures drawn in crayon. One could clearly see that two of the figures were meant to be him and his brother. The third figure was a tall person dressed in black and white. The background was colored dark blue and scattered with stars drawn in yellow.

 

‘WE HAD TO DRAW SOMETHING WE LOVED THE MOST. I LOVE MY FAMILY THE MOST, SO I DREW JUST THAT! I KNOW YOU AND DAD LOVE SPACE STUFF, SO I DREW THAT TOO.’

 

‘daww,’ Sans said, petting Papyrus gently on the head. Papyrus looked delighted. ‘that’s sweet. show it to dad, i’m sure he’ll love it.’

 

‘YES!’ said Papyrus cheerfully, although inwardly he felt rather doubtful since Sans’ scribbly drawing of their family that he drew 5 years still occupied the front of the fridge. While some of the drawings he gave his father were stuck to the side of the fridge, most of them were simply never seen again. But he said nothing about this.

 

Sans yawned, ‘man, classes really make me sleepy. i’m gonna take a nap when i get home.’

 

‘YOU SLEEP TOO MUCH,’ grumbled Papyrus, ‘STOP SLEEPING IN THE DAYTIME. DAYTIME IS NOT FOR SLEEPING. GO TO BED AT NIGHT.’

 

‘i do,’ Sans grinned as he replied, and yawned again, ‘well, we better go home before i fall asleep where i’m standing.’ he picked up his backpack, and took hold of Papyrus’ hand, ‘come on.’

 

\-------------------------

 

‘Right, you can stop now.’ 

 

Chara was scowling at Papyrus, sitting with their legs folded on the floor. Only half of the chocolate bar remained in their hands, and their mouth was stained with chocolate. They had been breaking off tiny pieces of the remaining chocolate and placing it on their tongue, as if to savor the remaining bit of chocolate as much as they could before they finished it.

 

‘DO YOU NEED TO TAKE A BREAK FROM MY STORY, SPIRIT?’ asked Papyrus. He was still seated on the floor, gazing through the bars at the child. 

 

‘Not exactly. It is simply that your story is utterly boring.’ they replied drily, ‘I am not interested in your daily life as a child at all. Do you not have anything exciting occur in your life at all?’

 

‘EXCITING?’ Papyrus gave an aside glance.

 

‘Of course! I do not wish to listen to dull stories. Did you not tell me about a rather exciting event in your life the last time? About how you and your garbage brother were locked in rooms due to your hazardous health? And how you were bullied? Oh! Of course, tell me about one of the times you were bullied.’ a grin spread across their chocolate-covered mouth, ‘That would be interesting.’

 

‘CAN I...TELL YOU ONE THAT HAPPENED IN SNOWDIN INSTEAD OF HOTLAND?’

 

Chara waved their hand at him, ‘Anything, please do proceed before Frisk and I doze off in boredom.’

 

\--------------------------------

 

Papyrus was thrown face down onto the snow, getting a mouthful of snow in the process. The young skeleton let out a whine of fear, trying to get up from the ground to flee. Before he could pull himself up, he was given another shove, planting his face into the snow again.

 

‘We saw you sucking up to our teacher and helping him carry books again.’ a harsh, mean voice said, as Papyrus laid still in the snow, not daring to get up again, ‘Have you been ratting us out to him?’

 

‘NO! OF COURSE NOT! I WAS JUST CARRYING HIS BOOKS FOR HIM AND-’

 

‘Shut up!’ came another voice, ‘Stop talking so loudly! You wanna get pummeled again?’ 

 

No, he really didn’t. It wasn’t pleasant being pinned down and having bullets being flung at him by these bullies.

 

Some of the tougher monster children in this school, especially the older ones, took enjoyment in bullying the weaker children. There weren’t that many bullies in the school as they were usually caught and punished by the school board. However, there were some who slipped under the radar by intimidating the other children into not telling on them. They were the terrors of the school, and all the other children tried their best to avoid them or comply to them.

 

Sans and Papyrus became targets of these bullies due to them being new to the town, and looking so different from the other monsters. There had never been any skeletons in Snowdin before they arrived. The bullies also saw them as weak, possibly due to their small size and because they were light-weight, being made out of bones. 

 

They both had learned to avoid these bullies, fleeing or taking an alternate route if they ever encountered them in school or outside. They also learned that the bullies did not dare to target them when they were together.

 

They learned this when they were caught one day. Together, they very easily overpowered and drove off the bullies with a barrage of bone attacks, and intimidation from a certain non-bone attack. Ever since then, they tried their best to stick together while in school and around school, despite them being in different grades.

 

Unfortunately for Papyrus, he was alone today and did not notice the bullies hanging around among the trees near the school, and had ran almost headlong into them while playing around after classes ended. 

 

One of the bullies, a minotaur-like monster, came over to the small skeleton, ‘Admit it, kid, you were being a goodie two-shoes to snitch on us.’ she hissed.

 

‘NO. I WASN’T.’

 

‘I told you to stop talking so loudly!’ a monster that resembled a floating fox head growled, ‘Now come on. Be a good boy and admit you’ve been snitching. Then go tell our teacher that you were lying and that we ain’t bullying anyone.’ 

 

‘I WASN’T SNITCHING.’ whined Papyrus.

 

‘Liar.’ one of the bullies, a dog-monster who was chewing at a dog treat, snarled, ‘Okay, you’re getting pummeled. Come on, on the count to three-’

 

‘Wait!’ exclaimed a shadowy monster, ‘Let’s make em do stuff for us, maybe we can get em to do our homework or steal something!’

 

‘i wouldn’t do that if i were you,’ Papyrus felt a wave of relief, and a little panic, when he heard this familiar voice. Sans had appeared behind the bullies, glaring at them out of darkened sockets, ‘leave my brother alone.’

 

The other monsters did not move at first, glaring at the older skeleton, who was much shorter than any of them. They looked as if they were about to pounce on him and tear him to pieces at any moment. Still he stood his ground, unafraid, summoning a few bone attacks and aiming them at the bullies.

 

Papyrus took this chance to scramble up from the ground and rush over to his brother. He clung to his brother’s arm, standing beside him and staring back at the bullies.

 

‘Get back here ya little-’ began the minotaur.

 

‘No, we better back off,’ said the dog-monster, taking a step back, ‘We can’t take on both of them together, remember?’ 

 

Despite acting tough, the bullies were rather cowardly in the face of people potentially stronger than them. They backed away from the brothers, and left grumpily. One of them turned back to yell at Sans, ‘We’ll get ya eventually! Ya better watch yer back!’ before hurrying to catch up with the rest of the gang.

 

For the next few days, the brothers tried their best to stay together, avoiding the bullies whenever they could. The bullies, however, finally saw their chance when the brothers were playing in the forest after school. 

 

Papyrus had ran ahead through the trees, and leap into a pile of snow with a squeal of excitement. Sans lagged behind, grinning at his brother’s antics. He was not aware of any danger until a bag was thrown over his head, and ropes lassoed around his waist and legs, tying him down. He didn’t even have the time to scream when he found himself being dragged away across the snow rapidly.

 

When the bag was finally taken off his head, he found himself on his back, staring up at the cruel faces of the bullies. 

 

‘Told you we’ll get you.’ one of them said, ‘Come on, let’s get this over with.’

 

‘let me go!’ he shouted, struggling against the rope.

 

‘Or what? You gonna cry? Or attack us? You know your attacks don’t do crap to us on your own.’

 

That was true, his attacks only dealt one damage, not at all effective against so many enemies at once. He couldn’t use a shortcut either, being tied down so tightly. He was also not very familiar with that ability yet at that age.

 

The floating fox monster took one end of the rope in their mouth, flew up one of the nearby trees, and tossed the rope over the branch. The others caught that end of the rope as it fell.

 

Sans cringed as he realized what they were about to do, and braced himself. The other monsters gave the rope a tug, and he was lifted up, legs first, by the rope around him. He was now dangling in the air, upside down, from the rope over the tree branch. He felt horrified as he saw how far he was from the ground. 

 

The other monsters tied the rope to another tree. ‘Perfect,’ the dog-monster said with a grin, ‘Now let’s scram. You just stay up there for a while, someone’s going to find you eventually, or maybe never. But, you know, this is what you get if you try messing with us.’

 

Before the bullies could leave, a few bone attacks came sailing through the air unexpectedly, striking some of them. They cried out in terror and pain, looking through the trees to see who the attacker was.

 

‘LET MY BROTHER GO!!!’

 

Out from the trees came Papyrus, running straight at the bullies and still firing bone attacks at them. He was screeching in anger, eye sockets gleaming with fury. His attacks were stronger than Sans’, and they  _ hurt _ . 

 

The bullies scattered, mostly out of terror upon seeing Papyrus rushing fearlessly at them. They tried to dodge behind the surrounding trees from tiny enraged skeleton.

 

After a while of trying to duck behind trees, they soon realized that they outnumbered Papyrus, and could easily overpower him on their own. Sans struggled against the ropes as he saw them surrounding Papyrus from all sides, closing in on the younger skeleton. 

 

Papyrus, on the other hand, still continued to look fearless and furious. He glared at the bullies one by one, preparing more attacks. Even if he was unable to defeat them all, he was prepared to go down trying.

 

Thankfully, from deeper in the forest came a loud, bone-chilling screech. A large creature came rushing out of the thickets, running at them threateningly. The bullies, being the cowards that they were, screamed in fright and fled. 

 

The creature turned out to be a Gyftrot, who had seen everything that happened as they were walking through the woods, hidden in the trees. Seeing the two skeletons in danger, they had come to their aid by scaring off the bullies.

 

‘Goshdarn teenagers, always bullying kids smaller than them,’ they grumbled, trotting over to Papyrus. They towered over him, and he was barely any taller than their legs, ‘You okay, kids?’

 

‘Y...YES,’ said Papyrus, in awe by the sudden appearance of a monster he had never seen before, but has only heard stories of from Snowdin locals, ‘THANK YOU, BIG DEER MONSTER.’

 

‘Name’s Gyftrot, just call me that,’ they said, glancing at Sans who was dangling right beside their head, ‘Here, let me help you down.’

 

They bit through the rope, breaking it, and allowed Sans to grab hold of their tree-like antlers. They then bent down to let Sans climb off.  

 

‘Some of those monsters are always doing that, bossing people around just ‘cause they’ve got some kind of advantage over them,’ they continued to complain, ‘They even pick on people bigger than them, sometimes, as long as their victims don’t fight back. Like us Gyftrots,’ they groaned, ‘They like to stick stuff on us when we’re asleep. Stickers, tinsel, streamers...you name it. Anything that can stay on or get tangled in our antlers, they’ll put on us. It’s been this way for years and years. After those teenagers grew up and have their own lives so they don’t have time to bully us anymore, another batch of teengers will come along and do the same. It’s a neverending cycle of sticky decorations.’

 

‘DO YOU THINK THERE’S SOME WAY TO CHANGE THIS?’ asked Papyrus, feeling sorry for the Gyftrot.

 

‘Change? Well, unless those bullies changed themselves I don’t see how anything will change.’ they replied.

 

‘SO IF THE BULLIES CHANGED THEMSELVES, THEY COULD BE BETTER PEOPLE?’ Papyrus said thoughtfully, ‘DO YOU THINK WE CAN GET THEM TO CHANGE?’

 

‘Eh, people like them are probably too stubborn to change anyway, so I don’t see the point.’ the Gyftrot dismissed his suggestion with a sigh, ‘Anyway, you kids should probably run along home now, before your parents worry or something.’

 

‘that’s fine, our dad doesn’t come back ‘til much later anyway,’ said Sans, taking Papyrus’ hand, ‘thanks for helping us, by the way.’

 

‘Don’t mention it,’ they replied with a nod, ‘And I mean it, don’t mention it to anyone. We Gyftrots like our peace and quiet here in the woods, if you tell anyone, those teenagers might come back and stick stuff on us again. Goodbye.’ With that, they trotted off, disappearing among the trees. 

 

The brothers, hand in hand, turned and began to head back to Snowdin in silence.

 

Papyrus thought about his conversation with the Gyftrot for a while, pondering over it.  _ Unless those bullies changed themselves, nothing would change.  _ If he could somehow convince them that they could change themselves for the better, and stop trying to exert their power over everyone else, maybe he could get them to stop bullying.

 

Over the next few days in school, he put his plan into action. In secret, he wrote out several notes on pretty letter paper he bought with his own pocket money, and tried to give it to every one of those bullies. He manages this stealthily by sliding them into their lockers, leaving them in their desks, or placing them in the books he helped teachers to carry. 

 

Every one of those notes said the same thing. This was what one of the letters looked like, with any spelling mistakes omitted.

 

_ HELLO! I KNOW IT IS STRANGE FOR ME TO BE WRITING THIS LETTER TO YOU, SINCE YOU GUYS BULLIED ME AND MY BROTHER SO MUCH AFTER ALL. BUT I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, I STILL BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN CHANGE. YOU CAN ALWAYS BE A BETTER PERSON, IF YOU WANT TO, IF YOU TRIED. PLEASE TRY YOUR BEST TO BE BETTER PEOPLE. YOU’RE SCARING EVERYONE AND MAKING EVERYONE SAD. IF YOU HELPED PEOPLE INSTEAD OF BULLYING THEM, EVERYONE WILL LIKE YOU, AND YOU COULD MAKE MORE FRIENDS, AND IN THE FUTURE YOU WILL SUCCEED IN LIFE! AND BE SURROUNDED BY GREAT FRIENDS! _

 

_ FROM: PAPYRUS _

 

It was probably a terrible idea to sign his name on the notes, but he didn’t think about it at that time.

 

Nothing changed much after that. He and Sans still stuck closely together, avoiding the bullies as much as they could, and not daring to go into the woods alone anymore. Whenever he saw any of the bullies in the distance, he watched closely for their reactions. Some of them made mean faces at him, or made rude gestures. Some also outright ignored him, quickly turning away when they noticed he was staring at them.

 

The next week, however, he found that someone had slid a dog-treat into his locker. It was bone-shaped, the same kind the dog-monster from the gang of bullies had in his mouth all the time.

 

A small bone-shaped note was tied to the dog-treat by some thread. On it, in surprisingly neat handwriting, was written, 

 

_ Hey, small skeleton. I thought about the letter you wrote me. And you’re right. I realized that I was always hurting and scaring people. It’s because I want to feel cool and tough. I thought about it for a long time and decided I don’t want that anymore. I realized that I can always try to be a good dog, and knowing that I CAN try made me feel like not hurting anyone anymore. So thanks, I’ll try to be a good dog from now on. _

_ The dog treat’s for you. Don’t worry, it’s not poisoned or spiked or anything, I promise. Your dad’s a doctor or something isn’t he? You can ask him to get it tested or checked or whatever. It’s a new dog treat I just got out of the packet. _

 

_ Doggo. _

 

Papyrus smiled as he read and reread the note. Looking up, he saw Doggo peering at him from around the corner of the corridor. He waved at the dog-monster, who only seemed to see him when he moved to wave. Doggo nodded to him, giving a small hint of a smile, and disappeared around the corner.

 

\----------------------

 

‘You fabricated all of this!’ Chara exclaimed.

 

‘WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THAT, SPIRIT?’

 

‘The entire process of you informing douchebags that they can change their ways. Well, I suppose that is realistic for you to do that. But the fact that one of them changed is just unrealistic!’

 

‘BUT DOGGO REALLY DID CHANGE. HE’S PART OF THE ROYAL GUARDS NOW. HE DECIDED TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARDS AFTER GRADUATING FROM SCHOOL, BECAUSE HE WANTED TO USE HIS STRENGTH AND MAGIC TO HELP PEOPLE IN SOME WAY,’ Papyrus explained, ‘AS FOR THE OTHER MONSTERS, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT BECAME OF THEM. THEIR FAMILIES MOVED TO HOTLAND AFTER THEY GRADUATED. I HOPE THEY HAVE FOUND DECENT JOBS THERE.’ 

 

‘So, that was Doggo? The same canine who owned a sentry station in the woods near Snowdin and cannot see anything that is not moving?’

 

‘YES. THAT’S HIM!’

 

‘Oh.’ Chara paused for a while, ‘But also, the part where you fought the bullies seem pretty unrealistic too. How is it possible that you, of all people, would be willing to fight anyone?’

 

Papyrus laughed, “NYEH HEH HEH! I AM SIMPLY UNWILLING TO KILL ANYONE, BUT I DO NOT MIND FIGHTING, ESPECIALLY AFTER BEING FRIENDS WITH UNDYNE. MOST OF OUR HANG OUTS INCLUDE US FIGHTING, FRIENDLY FIGHTING, I SHOULD SAY. WE SOMEHOW ALMOST ALWAYS END UP SPARRING! AND BESIDES, MY BROTHER WAS IN DANGER, I HAD TO DO SOMETHING. FRISK SHOULD KNOW VERY WELL THAT I CAN FIGHT. I’VE FOUGHT THEM AFTER ALL, BUT TRIED MY BEST NOT TO HURT THEM TOO MUCH’

 

Both Chara and Frisk knew this was true. The child stuck out their tongue at him, not knowing what else to say. 

 

Flowey had remained silent throughout the story, leaning in closer and closer to Papyrus out of excitement to listen to the story that he had almost placed his petaled head on the skeleton’s shoulder. Papyrus had told him many things about his childhood in timelines where he befriended Papyrus, but he never went into detail about how much he was bullied in school, and how he tried to change that.

 

‘That was quite interesting, Papyrus, do you have any other stories you want to tell us?’ he asked curiously, tilting his head.

 

‘I DO! HOWEVER, NONE OF US HAVE HAD ANY BREAKFAST, RIGHT?’

 

It was at that moment that the children realized how hungry they were.

 

‘IT’S MUCH CLOSER TO LUNCHTIME NOW. WE CAN HAVE BRUNCH! I USUALLY DO NOT LIKE MIXING MEALS TOGETHER, ALTHOUGH MY BROTHER LOVES TO DO THAT ESPECIALLY ON DAYS WHEN HE ONLY WAKES UP AT NOON. BUT I SUPPOSE I CAN MAKE AN EXCEPTION TODAY. I SHALL GO PREPARE BRUNCH, AND THEN WE MAY CONTINUE.’

 

He got up from the floor, ‘BY THE WAY, SPIRIT, THAT IS THE ONLY CHOCOLATE BAR YOU WILL BE RECEIVING TODAY. TRY NOT TO EAT IT SO QUICKLY SO THAT IT WILL LAST LONGER.’

 

‘WHAT!?’ Chara shrieked.

 

‘I HAVE MORE CHOCOLATE IN HERE.’ said Papyrus, waving the small box in his hand, ‘I SHALL GIVE YOU ONE BAR PER DAY, OR ELSE THE CHOCOLATE WOULD RUN OUT TOO QUICKLY.’

 

Chara stopped breaking off pieces from the chocolate, and sulked. ‘Very well. Do as you must.’

 

‘GOOD. AND FOR NOW, IT’S BRUNCH TIME! AND THEN AFTER THIS WE MAY CONTINUE OUR CHAT, AND I CAN TELL YOU MORE STORIES! SEE, I TOLD YOU THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS AN EXCELLENT ENTERTAINER!’ Papyrus declared cheerfully.

 

The children couldn’t help but to agree.


	11. Calling Home

Papyrus held his mittened hand across the speaker of Frisk’s cell phone. Toriel was on the other end of the line, and he did not want her to hear him.

 

‘ARE YOU READY, FLOWEY?’ he whispered, or at least tried to. It was still much softer than his usual tone.

 

‘Of course!’ replied Flowey, full of confidence, ‘This is easy for me! Just watch, you’ll see!’

 

Papyrus removed his hand from the speaker, and held to phone out towards Flowey.

 

Being turned into a soulless flower gave Flowey a variety of new abilities that he did not have as Asriel. This included using seeds, or pellets as he called them, as bullets. He could also store souls within him, due to initially being created as a vessel for souls. One ability he did not expect to come with this body was the ability to mimic voices. He didn’t use it often but he was very, very proud of it, and usually used it as an intimidation tactic.

 

To keep up the deception that everything was alright, he had suggested that he mimicked Frisk’s voice to speak to Toriel. Giving the phone to the now-possessed Frisk was a terrible idea, since they might try to lure Toriel and the other monsters down underground to be killed. This seemed to be the only way to prevent the others on the surface from worrying.

 

Flowey steadied himself. His petaled face began to morph to resemble Frisk’s. Papyrus turned away. he had seen Flowey mimic voices before, and for some reason Flowey had to morph his face to take on a vague appearance of the person he was mimicking. 

 

It was an uncanny sight. His face was still white, but he now had human eyes and a human mouth, which moved around mechanically like stiff rubber. This sight creeped out even Papyrus.

 

‘Hi mom!’ said Flowey, in a voice that sounded exactly like Frisk’s.

 

How ironic that he was now calling Toriel “mom”.

 

‘Frisk dear?’ Toriel did not suspect a thing, ‘How have you been doing? Are you still ill? Have you been eating well? Have you been going to bed and waking up on time? Are you cold there? Please remember to bundle up…’

 

Toriel’s motherly concern was bringing back memories of his days as Asriel, when Toriel would fuss over him and Chara. 

 

It was a good thing he was soulless and could no longer feel any emotions, he thought, trying to convince himself. However, he was holding back his desire to be with his parents again.

 

‘Yes, mom, I’m doing fine. I’m not so sick anymore.’ he replied, ‘Everything here is going great.’

 

‘I am delighted to hear that, I suppose Papyrus is good as well?’

 

‘He’s wonderful, mom!’ secretly, Flowey thought so too.

 

Toriel asked ‘Frisk’ a few more questions about their condition, which Flowey replied in a perfect imitation of Frisk. Papyrus looked relieved.

 

However, as she was finishing her conversation, she said, unexpectedly, ‘Oh, by the way dear, is that flower monster there with you? There is a…”guest”...here who wishes to speak to them,’ she said the word “guest” in an oddly strained way, ‘Sans has been feeling rather down and refused to leave his house, this “guest” managed to convince him to visit me and drove him here. As much as I did not want to, I invited him in since he came all the way here after all. So, please pass the phone to the flower monster if they are with you.’

 

Flowey gazed up at Papyrus in confusion. The skeleton looked bewildered as well, and simply shrugged in reply. Having no choice, Flowey morphed his face and voice back to his own.

 

‘Howdy.’ he said, after much hesitation.

 

‘Howdy, Flowey, it’s Asgore here. I hope you’re doing well?’

 

Flowey froze, unable to reply.

 

‘I am sorry that I was unable to call you yesterday, I had to attend an emergency meeting dealing with human-monster diplomacy. I take that Papyrus has been caring for you as well? Have you been good to both him and Frisk?’

 

Flowey was still unable to reply, until Papyrus gave him a gentle nudge on his stem. 

 

‘Uhh...yes, Mr. Asgore, I’ve been good.’ he almost wanted to call Asgore “dad”.

 

‘I’m glad to hear that. I hope you’ve been taken care of yourself as well. Make sure you eat regular meals and get enough water. I know it’s hard for you to feel any positive emotions since you lack a soul, but I hope that you don’t feel too downcast there. Everything will be alright, child, stay determined.’

 

Flowey was in disbelief. He did not expect to be missed by anyone, not even by Asgore. But yet, Asgore was concerned for him. Asgore was so worried for him that he felt the need to encourage him.

 

He felt something wet rolling down his face from his eyes. Was he...was he crying!?

 

Asgore spoke to him the same way he did when he was still Asriel. He missed those days dearly. He missed his parents so much. Even though Asgore treated him like his own child, it just didn’t feel the same without admitting who he truly was. There was still a distance between them.

 

‘Why do you speak to the flower as if they were your child?’ Toriel’s voice, sounding distant, came through the phone.

 

‘Well,’ Asgore sounded a bit sheepish, ‘Forgive me if I sound thoughtless, as the topic of our children is very sensitive. But, I’ve always taken Flowey as one of my children. I found him the last time I went underground the ensure that everything important from the castle has been moved to the surface. He was all alone, looking sad, in my garden. He disappeared underground when I approached at first, but after I called out for him a few times, he returned. I asked him why was he still down there, why hasn’t he gone to the surface with the rest of the monsters? He told me that he was different from other monsters, he had no soul, and he would not fit in among monsters and humans. Besides, he had nowhere to go, no family or friends. And he felt like he needed to take care of the golden flowers in my garden and in the Ruins.’

 

‘It seemed like he couldn’t let go of something. There was something about those flowers made him want to stay there. I told him that I could take him into my home on the surface, and adopt him. He brightened up a little, but then looked downcast again, saying that I wouldn’t want him after a while. No one wanted him, especially if they ever knew what he had done.’

 

‘Well, I don’t know what he’s done, nor did I care. I couldn’t let someone so young and broken stay alone underground. In the end, I managed to convince him to come with me. I took one of the flowerpots I had in the garden and carefully replanted him into it. He has been staying with me ever since, helping around the house whenever he can.’

 

‘In a way, he reminds me of our Asriel. I know, I’m sorry, that sounds terrible when I put it that way. But the way he acts when he’s grumpy, or embarrassed, the way he smiles sometimes, it reminds me of our Asriel. Sometimes, he even reminds me of our Chara as well. And because of that, it made me even more resolved to take care of him.’

 

Toriel was silent for awhile, ‘I...I see. I suppose...that is fair enough. Frisk has taken to him very well. They are close friends with him, which is pleasant to see.’ she sounded as if she were smiling a little. Toriel smiling at Asgore!? Now that was something rather unexpected.

 

Asgore seemed to suddenly realize that he was still on the phone, ‘Oh, golly, I completely forgot that I was talking to Flowey! I apologize for that. How is the Underground like now, Flowey?’

 

Flowey could not respond at all. He was weeping, tears now running fast and freely down his face. Papyrus seemed a little horrified by this, frantically trying to figure out an excuse to tell Asgore.

 

‘Flowey? Hello?’ came Asgore’s voice.

 

‘AH, YOUR MAJESTY! FLOWEY HAS...GONE TO SLEEP! YES! HE IS VERY TIRED. HE FELL ASLEEP WHEN YOU WERE SPEAKING WITH MISS TORIEL!’ said Papyrus into the phone, a little too quickly.

 

‘Ah, please apologize to him when he wakes up, I should not have rambled on for so long.’ replied Asgore, ‘How have you been, Papyrus? Do you wish to speak to your brother?’

 

‘I AM ALRIGHT, YOUR MAJESTY. AND OF COURSE! I WOULD LOVE TO SPEAK TO THAT BROTHER OF MINE.’ Papyrus sneaked a look at Flowey. The flower was still weeping, stem bend over and petals hiding his face. He was in no condition to talk at the moment. Papyrus decided to leave him alone for a while.

 

His conversation with his brother was surprisingly brief. They simply asked each other if they were taking care of themselves well, and managed to exchange a joke or two. Sans sounded more weary and despondent than usual, but was trying hard to hide it by chuckling as he told terrible puns. 

 

Papyrus felt concerned, but also worried that Sans could detect the tiredness in his voice. He tried to mask this by yelling extra loudly at Sans’ puns.

 

After finishing the conversation, he ended the call. He sat still on the couch for a while, staring blankly at the screen of the phone. 

 

He wanted to see his brother again, he wanted to be with his brother again. Staying down here with a child that could potentially destroy all of monsterkind and humanity was slowly but surely taking a toll on him, he wished he could-

 

No, he must not feel any negative emotions. He must keep on being positive. He’ll be home soon, everything was going to be okay soon. He’ll see his friends and his brother again.

 

Maybe doing something else would help to distract him. He turned to Flowey, wanting to ask if he was alright.

 

‘D...don’t talk to me!’ Flowey’s voice sounded a little harsher than he intended. He peeked out from between his petals, tears still running down his face, ‘I j...just...sorry Papyrus. B...but just, l...leave me alone, for a w...while. Okay?’

 

Papyrus nodded. He got up, and headed over to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Cooking was always a good distraction.

 

After preparing a meal for himself and Flowey, he set out another meal on a tray and brought it upstairs. He headed to the door of his old room. Balancing the tray on one hand, he knocked on the door.

 

No answer.

 

He opened the door, gently pushing it ajar. The room was in darkness, on the floor he could see a small figure curled up in the sleeping bag. He could hear soft, regular breathing.

 

The child did not sleep much the night before, and was exhausted. What was meant to be an hour-long nap after brunch turned into them dozing for the rest of the day.

 

Papyrus decided not to wake them. He quietly dispelled the bones that barred the door, and placed the tray inside the room. He closed the door and created another set of bone attacks to block the door. He then headed downstairs for his own dinner.

 

Dinner was a little awkward that night. Neither Papyrus nor Flowey had much appetite, and didn’t have much to say to each other. Flowey had calmed down, but refused to explain his reaction from speaking to Asgore earlier. He refused to even acknowledge that it happened. Papyrus found himself at a loss of words as well, often getting lost in his own thoughts instead of chatting.

 

In the end, they cleared away the dishes. Papyrus stored the leftovers in the fridge. They then settled back down on the couch to kill some time. Papyrus gave Flowey a jigsaw puzzle to solve, which was very trying on the flower’s patience. But since he didn’t know what else to do, he stuck to it and managed to get it about three quarters done before he started feeling sleepy.

 

Papyrus sketched as he watched Flowey. He had brought a few sketchpads in his backpack, and sometimes drew during his free time. Drawing always helped him take his mind off things.

 

Bedtime soon arrived. Flowey once again slept downstairs in the living room, snuggling into pillows on the couch with a blanket over his stem. Papyrus tried to sleep upstairs in Sans’ old room, but found that he couldn’t.

 

Talking to the spirit about his past brought about memories. Good memories, and bad memories he had tried to forget. This prevented him from falling asleep.

 

The good memories made him think of his brother, and all his friends. He had formed the best memories with them, especially with Sans. He didn’t want to let any of those memories go. He wanted to keep them safe, keep everyone safe. He must not let them kill anyone, he had to do everything he could to protect everyone.

 

He got up from the sleeping bag, full of resolve. Standing up straight and closing his eyes, he concentrated on forming a shortcut to Waterfall. He had to make sure the spirit could not escape. He had to keep the spirit down here until he managed to stop their murderous tendencies in some way. He had to finish what he started.

 

With a flash from his eye, he vanished from the room.

 

In the next room, the child stirred. They sat up from the sleeping bag, and noticed the food, now unfortunately cold, sitting by the door.

 

Feeling hungry, they headed over to eat. It was a glass of milk, soup, some buttered buns, and a bread pudding of all things. The soup was cold and too salty, so they left it in disgust. The buns were alright, but the bread pudding seemed harder and drier than it should be. They had to take gulps of milk in between mouthfuls.

 

After that, they took out what was left of the chocolate bar and ate that too, while sitting on the floor thinking.

 

Their attention was drawn the the bones over the window. If they disturbed the bones, would Papyrus know? Are monsters able to feel anything if their bullets are disrupted?

 

‘After residing among monsters for many years, I would say that is very unlikely.’ said Chara softly, ‘We can remove them, but we must be wary not to come in contact with them.’

 

The knife they had picked up earlier that day was still in their inventory. They wedged the tip of it under one of the bones, and began to slowly push the knife between the bone and the wooden windowsill. The bone seemed solid despite being a magical attack, and was as hard and as heavy as concrete. 

 

After a while, the knife could slide in and out between the bone and the wood easily. They continued by trying to pry away the top of the bone as well.

 

Eventually, the bone attack came loose. It fell off from the window, and clattered onto the floor. They froze, hoping no one had heard it. Hearing no noises from downstairs or the next room, they began working on trying to loosen more bones.

 

Removing one bone already took them a rather long time, it seemed unlikely that they would be able to escape tonight. 

 

No matter, the thought of being able to escape and destroy this timeline once and for all filled the two children with determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> =)


	12. The Hospital

‘Are you here to tell us more stories about your past?’ Chara asked as Papyrus placed a tray of food and Flowey on the floor, in front of the barred door.

 

‘IF YOU WISH TO HEAR MORE STORIES, I WILL BE HAPPY TO TELL THEM TO YOU, SPIRIT!’ Papyrus said as he sat down. He seemed to wobble a little, prompting Flowey to turn quickly and give him a look of concern. 

 

‘I PROBABLY SHOULD SIT DOWN A LITTLE SLOWER.’ he said sheepishly, partially to himself, ‘WHAT STORIES WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT, SPIRIT?’

 

He passed some toast through the bones to the child, as well as a butterknife, some jam, and butter. They were once again having brunch together today. The child took the food, and began to spread the jam and butter on the toast.

 

‘Perhaps you would like to tell me more about your friend Undyne?’ Undyne had always interested the child, ever since they had fought her in her Undying form several times. She was one of the rare monsters who dared to stand up against them, and was an actual threat, during the timelines where they killed everyone. They were also very drawn to her hot-blooded, easily excitable attitude. 

 

Papyrus brightened up, ‘UNDYNE! EXCELLENT IDEA, SPIRIT! SHE HAS BEEN MY FRIEND FOR THE LONGEST OF TIMES AND SHE IS A VERY GOOD PERSON, ALSO VERY GOOD AT SUPLEXING ME!’

 

‘How did you meet her?’

 

‘WELL, SPIRIT. IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO, WHEN I WAS STILL STAYING IN HOTLAND…’

 

\-------------------------------

 

The hospital in Hotland was the largest hospital in all of the Underground, and also the newest. It was connected to the science facilities of Hotland, and housed research labs somewhere deep within the building.

 

Scientific research Undergound underwent a sharp increase ever since the Core was successfully built. The scientists, under the leadership of the Royal Scientist, now turned their interest to improving the health of monsters. They also were trying to discover ways to improve on the magical abilities of monsters, perhaps a key to break the barrier was hidden within the SOULs of monsters themselves.

 

One of the patients receiving treatment at the hospital that day was a fish monster in her pre-teen years. She had a hospital room all to herself, but she hated it. 

 

She was an active child, preferring to be outdoors rather than indoors. Outdoors was where she could run free. Outdoors was also where she could climb up high rocks in Waterfall and cannonball into the underground rivers. She also happened to hate Hotland. Waterfall was her home, and home was where she could swim or simply relax in the cool underground caverns. She hated the Hotland heat and the complete lack of rivers or lakes in this region.

 

She laid back on the bed, arms folded, bored out of her mind. The left side of her face was bandaged up, and her left eye itched, but she couldn’t scratch at it without ruining the bandage. 

 

Stupid eye, she thought to herself, stupid bandage, stupid hospital, why can’t they just let me share a room with someone!? This would be much less boring if only I could talk to someone!

 

Almost as if on cue, the door of her room creaked open. She looked up, expecting one of the doctors who often came to take her vitals, or a nurse bringing her food and water. Instead, she was surprised to see a small white skeletal face, with a shy grin, peeking around the door.

 

‘Hey!’ she exclaimed in surprise. 

 

The face’s expression brightened up upon being acknowledged. The door was pushed open further and the stranger entered the room. Undyne had never seen a skeleton monster in all her life, due to the rarity of this species, and was bewildered by this monster’s appearance. 

 

She gazed at the newcomer as he approached her bed. He was short and small, very likely a child monster. He had eye sockets instead of eyes, and his left eye appeared to be bandaged up like her own. There was a neck brace around his bony neck, and underneath the neck brace there seemed to be a bright red collar. He was dressed in a child-sized hospital gown.

 

He walked right up to her bed and gazed at her curiously, ‘HELLO, I AM PAPYRUS! PAPYRUS THE SKELETON. I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND!’

 

For a moment she was taken aback by his bluntness and how loud his voice was. But she couldn’t help liking this child’s friendliness.

 

‘Hey, it’s nice to meet you, Papyrus!’ she said as she grinned, showing off her razor-sharp teeth, ‘I’m Undyne, Undyne the fish, I guess. What’s up with you?’

 

Papyrus tilted his head curiously.

 

‘I mean, what are you in for? Okay, that sounded bad. I meant why are you here at the hospital? Are you injured?’

 

‘OH!’ the skeleton shook his head, giving a little bounce as he did. He seemed to be full of energy at all times. ‘OH NO, FRIEND UNDYNE. I AM NOT INJURED. I GOT A NEW BODY!’

 

‘That’s nice...wait, WHAT!?’

 

Papyrus pointed at his neck brace, ‘MY HEAD IS STILL THE SAME BUT I GOT A NEW BODY!’

 

Undyne stared at him in confusion, trying to process what exactly was he trying to say, ‘I’m guessing that you got injured somehow and they had to replace your entire body, kind of like those transplant things some people get?’ she finally asked. She had no idea how transplants worked, neither did she know anything about skeleton anatomy.

 

Papyrus tilted his head again, ‘SORT OF.’ he didn’t know exactly how to explain his condition, ‘WHAT ABOUT YOU?’

 

‘Me? The doctors are keeping me here so they can check on me. They’re making me stay here, and I hate it.’

 

‘WHY DO YOU HATE IT?’

 

‘Because I wanna go outside! It’s not fun being made to stay indoors all the time! And besides, I want to talk to people! I mean, Alphys does come around sometimes to talk to me, but that’s about it. The doctors never stay to chat with me. They’re always so cold and unfriendly.’

 

‘WHO’S ALPHYS?’

 

‘Oh!’ Undyne’s cheeks grew a little warm, ‘She’s a friend, a very good friend. I met her a year ago at the trash dump in Waterfall. She looked really down, and was staring into one of those really deep waterfalls we have there. I talked to her to cheer her up, and we ended up becoming friends! She’s one of the junior trainee scientists here in Hotland, and she’s being trained to become a scientist one day. I’m not surprised, she’s a genius! A real wiz at anything sciency! I’m really glad I got to know her!’

 

Papyrus climbed onto the bed, and sat down on the edge of it. ‘SHE SOUNDS REAL NICE! I CAN BE YOUR FRIEND TOO! I CAN COME TO TALK TO YOU WHENEVER YOU WANT!’

 

‘That sounds great!’ Undyne beamed, she did enjoy talking to this small skeleton monster, ‘And hey, what’s up with your eye? It’s bandaged up the same way as mine.’ she remarked, ‘Did you get the injection too?’

 

‘INJECTION?’

 

‘Yeah! Okay so, Alphys has this project for her junior trainee scientists thing where she gets to work with actual scientists! Isn’t that cool? But yeah, those scientists are working on a project where they’re using some kind of liquid that can make monsters stronger! I’m not sure how it works. Alphys explained her theories of it to me, but I can’t really understand anything sciency. Still, if it makes us stronger, I’m all for it! My dream is to become part of the Royal Guards, so I gotta get as strong as possible to be the best Royal Guard ever!’

 

‘Anyway, she told me that she felt that the team was working too slow and decided to find someone to test the liquid on. I volunteered when she told me about this. Anything that can make me stronger can’t be bad right? So she gave me an injection with it. It looked like glowing red goop, very weird.’ 

 

‘The rest of the scientists were kinda mad that she did it without their permission, but then they began to ask me to do all kinds of weird tests. It’s kind of like P.E. in school, but more brutal. I could do it with ease! Everything like jumping and lifting and running became so easy for me ever since I got the injection! But then something happened, I can’t remember what because everything became fuzzy. I woke up with this bandage over my eye, and now they’re making me stay here at the hospital.’

 

Papyrus’ eyes had been becoming wider and wider as Undyne explained her condition. He gave a loud gasp when she told him about waking up with the bandage.

 

‘BUT ARE YOU OKAY? DID IT HURT YOU?’

 

‘Wha-? No, no it didn’t hurt at all!’ she smiled at him reassuringly, ‘Don’t worry about me! I’m fine. It’s sometimes kind of itchy under the bandage, but I’m fine. I just don’t like being stuck here.’

 

Papyrus pulled himself off the bed. He took Undyne’s hand and gave it a gentle tug, ‘THEN LET’S GO! LET’S GO OUTSIDE TO PLAY!’

 

‘Sneaking outside, when I’m not supposed to?’ Undyne looked delighted. She threw off her blanket, laughing as she did, ‘I like you, punk! You’re a rebel, so you’re cool to me. Let’s go!’

 

They were just about to head to the door when there was a knock. They both froze in their tracks. Before they could react, the door was pushed open by another skeleton. He was clearly older than Papyrus, being a bit taller than him and more heavy-set. He too wore a hospital gown, and had a bandage over his eye, but on his right eye instead of the left.

 

‘hey, sorry to disturb you, but have you seen a small skel-’

 

Behind this skeleton, a high-pitched, frantic voice was saying, ‘N...no! Please d...don’t disturb her! H...he’s probably not in that room, S...Sans! L...leave Undyne’s room alone! The d...doctors might get m...mad again!’

 

‘BROTHER!’ Papyrus gave a yelp of joy. He released Undyne’s hand and practically threw himself onto Sans, hugging his older brother for dear life. 

 

Behind Sans was a lizard monster in her pre-teens, wearing a pair of oversized glasses and clasping her hands together nervously. She gave a horrified gasp when she saw Undyne standing by the door.

 

‘U...Undyne! No! G...go back to bed! The d...doctors would be so angry to see you up again.’

 

She desperately tried to push Undyne back to the bed. Undyne resisted for a while, but finally allowed herself to be shoved back to bed, and have Alphys pull the blanket over her.

 

‘Oh come on, Alphys! Just let me spend an hour outside this room? I won’t let anyone see me, promise!’

 

‘C...can’t do that, Undyne! T...they said that you’re not well enough yet t...to leave. You have to stay in bed.’ she clasped her hands together again, fidgeting, ‘I...I feel really bad about this, I’m sorry for giving you the i...injection. If I hadn’t, t...this wouldn’t have happened.’

 

‘Aw, don’t feel bad! It feels good! It makes me feel stronger and makes me feel like I can do anything as long as I set my mind to it! For example, right now I wanna get out of bed and go for a run!’

 

She attempted to get out of bed again, only to be pinned down by Alphys with a shriek.

 

At the same time, Sans was also giving Papyrus a mini-lecture.

 

‘i told you that you need to stay in bed, papyrus! you’re still recovering and you might get hurt if you run around too much. you have to rest.’

 

‘I DON’T WANNA!’ whined Papyrus, wrapping his arms around Sans’ waist and staring up at him indignantly, ‘I WANNA PLAY!’

 

‘you can play when you’re better, okay? now come on. i shouldn’t be out of the room as well, but i had to look for you.’

 

Papyrus whimpered. ‘I WANT TO PLAY WITH MY NEW FRIEND UNDYNE! PLEASE LET ME PLAY WITH HER FOR A WHILE! WE WON’T GO OUTSIDE. WE’LL JUST STAY IN HERE AND TALK.’

 

‘Yeah! That’s a great idea!’ Undyne piped up, ‘No one needs to know! It’ll be our little secret. You can sneak in here, and we can talk or do something together. Then you just have to sneak out again! It’s perfect!’ she cared nothing for the repercussions of being caught. As far as she was concerned, she was not afraid of the doctors at all, no matter how stern they were.

 

Papyrus was bouncing up and down in excitement. Sans quickly took a firm hold of him, while glancing at his neck brace nervously. 

 

‘YES YES! I CAN COME AND PLAY WITH YOU!’ Papyrus had more reason to fear the doctors. But at the moment, he was too excited to think about it. He finally made a new friend! He finally got to talk to someone, besides his brother, who wasn’t one of those scientists or doctors! He was going to cherish this friendship forever.

 

Sans and Alphys glanced at each other. Alphys looked terrified, but Sans shook his head sadly.

 

‘i can’t deny my brother from having some fun, he’s been cooped up in that room ever since the operation after all.’ he said with a sigh, ‘besides, look at that face. how can i say no to a face like that?’

 

Papyrus, right on cue, turned to look at Alphys with large, shining eye sockets, giving the best puppy-dog eyes impression he could despite only having eye sockets. Alphys couldn’t help herself from smiling. He looked adorable.

 

‘W...well, maybe if we’re really, really careful not to get caught.’ she finally said, giving in, ‘I...I would love to be able to visit U...Undyne more often too. And it was n...nice chatting with you, S...Sans.’

 

‘You two know each other?’ asked Undyne, staring at the Sans curiously. 

 

‘YEAH! I DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD FRIENDS, SANS!’ exclaimed Papyrus, a little too bluntly, which made Sans look a little embarrassed. 

 

‘we...kinda just met,’ explained Sans, ‘i was looking for you and saw alphys wandering around the halls. al mentioned that she was one of the junior trainee scientists. i found that pretty cool so we began talking about what she was studying and the project she was part of.’

 

‘Y...yeah, most other kids l...laugh at me for being a trainee s...scientist. They like to c...call me a nerd. It’s r...real nice to meet someone s...so interested in science too.’ Alphys flushed bright red as she spoke.

 

‘I’m guessing you wanna be a scientist when you grow up, like Al?’ asked Undyne.

 

‘OH OH!’ Papyrus piped up, ‘SANS IS REAL SMART! HE’LL BE A GREAT SCIENTIST!’

 

Sans grinned at his brother, and gave Papyrus, who was still clinging to him, a pat on the head. Papyrus responded by nuzzling into Sans’ clothes. ‘i guess it’s something i’m pretty interested in. i would love to be able to join the junior trainee scientists. what about you?’

 

‘I’m gonna join the Royal Guard when I’m older!’ Undyne yelled, bringing her fist down onto the table beside her bed and making Alphys jump, ‘I’m gonna begin my training soon in fact! There’s a cool old guy called Gerson who opens a shop near my house. They say that he’s a former captain who is so old that he fought in the war! He once told me that if I was good he would train me when I got older! Imagine that! Maybe one day I might even be captain as well!’

 

‘DO THE ROYAL GUARDS HELP PEOPLE?’ asked Papyrus, releasing his brother and coming over to Undyne’s side.

 

‘Of course they do! They keep everyone safe and make sure the Underground is peaceful! If you’re part of them, you’re a hero! You might even get to fight a human, even though I don’t know what those are, but I know they’re our enemies because they hurt monsters, so I’m all for that!’

 

‘DO...YOU THINK I CAN JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD ONE DAY?’ asked the tiny skeleton.

 

Undyne nodded with a grin. ‘You’re a squirt, but you seem nice. So as long as you grow up to be big, tall, and strong, I’m pretty sure you CAN join the Royal Guards. You just have to be determined enough to train for it!’

 

Papyrus pressed his tiny hands into the side of the bed, eye socket shining, ‘I WILL! I PROMISE I WILL GROW BIG, TALL, AND STRONG. THEN I WILL BE ABLE TO HELP PEOPLE AND BE A HERO!’

 

‘Now THAT’S the Royal Guard spirit! At least, I think so! If you keep that up, we can be in the Royal Guard together! It’ll be so much fun!!’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More stories from Papyrus about his friends.


	13. The Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I want to apologize for going on an unannounced hiatus for such a long time. I completely ran out of steam on writing this story, despite already having planned an outline for it. I'm really sorry for seemingly abandoning the story. But, I'm back, and with the longest chapter yet. I hope I can get back into writing this story again and get over my writer's block. Thanks for being patient everyone. ^^;

‘UNDYNE!’

 

Undyne barely stirred, her head still buried under her thick blankets. 

 

There was a tapping noise on her window. She shifted her position in bed with a groan, burying her face into her pillow, and dozed off again.

 

‘ _ UNDYNE!!! _ ’

 

This time, the yell came from inside her own bedroom. She woke up immediately, yelling, and fell off her bed. At the same time, several large blue spears materialized and pointed directly at the source of the voice.

 

She leapt up from the floor, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and prepared herself to fight whoever it was that had broken into her room.

 

‘PAPYRUS!’ she shouted indignantly.

 

The skeleton, now much older, was gazing at the spears in utter terror. He gave Undyne a watery grin. She had also unwittingly turned his SOUL bright green, so he could not move out of the way.

 

‘What is the meaning of coming into my room in THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!?’ Undyne continued to yell, ‘IT’S 3AM!!! And besides, how did you even get in here!? My window and doors are locked!’

 

Papyrus still continued to stare at the spears in fright. Undyne finally noticed this, and made them vanish with a snap of her fingers. ‘What are you doing here!?’ she asked.

 

Papyrus’ fear melted away, and he beamed at her happily. ‘I WISH TO BECOME PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD! I WANT TO TRAIN UNDER YOU!’

 

‘What!? You came into my room at 3 AM for THIS!!?’ Undyne exclaimed as she brushed some of her messy red fin-hair away from her face, being careful to avoid disturbing her eyepatch, ‘Papyrus, the recruitment interviews were two months ago! It already ended!’

 

‘CAN WE NOT HAVE A PERSONAL INTERVIEW SESSION?’

 

‘If you want to join the Royal Guard, go to the recruitment interviews next year! I’m sure I can arrange something for you then!’

 

‘BUT I WISH TO JOIN RIGHT NOW! ALSO, CAN MY BROTHER SANS BE A SENTRY? OR ANY OTHER POSITIONS THAT MAY BE AVAILABLE FOR SOMEONE WHO WISHES TO SIT AT THE SAME SPOT ALL DAY?’

 

Undyne groaned, closing her eyes and rubbing a finger on her temple. She wanted to go back to sleep, and being awake so late was making her grumpy.

 

‘Just, get out, okay?’ she replied, a little more rudely than she intended, ‘Get out of my room, and go home! Go back to bed, and come back next year, okay!?’

 

She walked over to her bedroom door, and threw it open. ‘GET OUT!’

 

Papyrus looked a little hurt, but he still manage to give her a cheerful smile, and strode out of the room. He did not seem sleepy at all despite it being so late at night.

 

Undyne slammed her door shut, but then remembered that her front door was locked and Papyrus wouldn’t have been able to leave. With another groan, she opened her bedroom door again. 

 

Her living room and kitchen were empty. No skeleton to be seen. Papyrus must have gotten out somehow despite the doors and windows being locked.

 

‘Weirdo.’ she mumbled to herself. She shut and locked her bedroom door, before leaping back into bed and dozing off again.

 

The next morning, she opened her front door and found Papyrus waiting for her. He was seated directly in front of her door, gazing up at the door with shining eyes, looking like an excited puppy waiting for his owner.

 

She backed away from the door, not expecting to see Papyrus’ pale skeletal face and empty eye sockets staring at her. He simply gave her another beaming smile that looked a bit too innocent.

 

‘GOOD MORNING!’

 

Undyne glared, feeling annoyed once again. ‘Have you been sitting there all night!?’

 

He nodded.

 

‘You really want to join the Royal Guards, don’t you?’

 

He nodded again, his smile growing brighter.

 

‘And your brother, you want me to give him a sentry job?’

 

‘YES!’

 

She sighed, folding her arms and leaning against the door.

 

‘Don’t you both have a job? Weren’t you both working as-’

 

She paused. Wait, what _ were _ the skeleton brothers working as before this? She swore they both had a job somewhere. She felt like she would have remembered since she had known them since their childhood. But yet nothing came to mind.

 

Her memory hasn’t been doing too well since that Core incident two weeks ago. As the Captain of the Royal Guard, she had led the evacuation process of Hotland during the incident. But ever since then she felt like she had been forgetting bits and pieces of anything that happened before that.

 

Papyrus just shook his head. ‘SANS IS DOING NOTHING AT HOME AT THE MOMENT, HE KEEPS LAZING AROUND AND SLEEPING. AND I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOCIETY! REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER, I WANTED TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD? WELL, I HAVE DECIDED TO PURSUE THAT DREAM. SO PLEASE LET ME JOIN!’

 

‘AS FOR SANS, I DO NOT LIKE SEEING HIM LAYING ON THE COUCH ALL DAY, MOPING. HE MENTIONED THAT HE WANTED TO WORK AS A COMEDIAN IN HOTLAND, BUT I THINK HOTLAND IS A TERRIBLE PLACE AND DO NOT WISH FOR HIM TO GO THERE ANYMORE. SO PLEASE, GIVE HIM A JOB AS WELL!’

 

Undyne hesitated for a moment, before removing herself from the door and gesturing towards the table in her living room, ‘Get inside. Let me think about this.’

 

Papyrus stood up, beamed at her, and dashed towards the table. He took a seat, while Undyne closed the door, and headed towards him. She positioned herself opposite of him, pressing her hands on the table.

 

‘Listen,’ she said, in a much softer and more stern voice, ‘I really shouldn’t be letting people join outside of the recruitment interviews. Protocol stuff, you know. But, don’t tell anyone, we really need more people in the Royal Guards. For some reason not many people are joining, and many of the older guards either retired, or just straight up disappeared. There used to be more Canine guards around, but they all vanished suddenly and no one knows where they went.’

 

‘I need more recruits. You’re so enthusiastic and determined to join that you actually broke into my house somehow, and waited for me until today morning. That’s just the kind of quality we need in the Royal Guards.’ she continued

 

Papyrus nodded, ‘AM I ALLOWED TO JOIN THEN?’

 

‘One on condition, only if you can handle all my training sessions and pass the tests! Your brother just needs to be able to handle sitting at the same sentry station all the time, and send in reports every week. YOU, on the other hand, have several very gruelling and tough training sessions to go through. Can you handle it?’

 

Papyrus leapt up from his seat, giving Undyne a salute, ‘YES! I AM COMPLETELY WILLING TO ENDURE WHATEVER YOU THROW AT ME, CAPTAIN UNDYNE!!’

 

‘THAT’S what I like to see.’ Undyne’s voice went back to her loud, excited yell, as she grinned at the skeleton and slapped her fist into her palm. ‘Now, training sessions begin tomorrow! So come here on the dot at 8am, think you make it?’

 

‘I SHALL BE HERE AT 7:59AM ON THE DOT, CAPTAIN! YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!’

 

‘GOOD! I can’t wait to welcome you into the Royal Guard!’ she slammed her fist into the table, breaking it in half. Papyrus backed away just in time, knocking his chair over and ending up on the floor.

 

‘Ignore that! I needed a new table anyway!’ Undyne stepped around the table to help him up.

 

‘YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME, CAPTAIN UNDYNE! I, PAPYRUS, WILL NOW RETURN HOME AND PREPARE FOR TOMORROW MORNING!’ 

 

***

 

True to his word, Papyrus arrived at exactly 7:59am the next morning, and continued to do so for every training session. He never missed a single training session, carried out three times a week.

 

A few months passed, Undyne continued to work hard training Papyrus, while carrying out her duties as the Captain diligently. However, despite being very impressed by how fast he picked up skills, she wasn’t quite confident to let him into the Royal Guards yet.

 

‘We’ve gone over this, Papyrus,’ Undyne told him one day, as patiently as she could, ‘You do know how to use your magic to check someone’s HP right?’

 

‘OF COURSE I DO!’ replied Papyrus, proudly demonstrating this ability on the dummy he was practicing his attacks on.

 

‘Good. But you also DO know that to defeat a human, you have to reduce their HP to zero right?!’ Undyne raised her voice ever so slightly, clearly annoyed.

 

‘OF...OF COURSE.’ Papyrus began to look a little nervous.

 

The HP counter on the dummy showed 1, a tiny sliver of life still remained in it. 

 

Undyne sighed, ‘I mean, I guess being able to stop at 1 HP every time you fight a dummy is impressive, but it’s not enough. The Royal Guards will be first in line if any human decides to invade us, we have to make sure we can destroy them to prevent them from hurting civilians and Asgore.’

 

‘YES, MA’AM.’ Papyrus couldn’t look Undyne straight in the eye.

 

‘Is it because you’re worried you’ll be killing an actual monster? The soul of these dummies are just simulated, you’re not actually killing anything. I mean sometimes some ghost monsters possess the dummies, but they can’t die, because they’re ghosts, and also they’ll leave if you hit the dummies too hard.’

 

‘IT...IT ISN’T THAT…’ a few beads of what looked like sweat dripped down Papyrus’ skull.

 

‘Then what IS it?’ Undyne caught herself before she began yelling at him. Calming herself, she walked over and placed a hand on Papyrus’ shoulder.

 

‘I learned, and I’m pretty sure you learned too, that our magic is connected to our emotions. Sometimes a monster’s emotions can cause a sort of blockage on their magic, preventing them from using it properly. Anything kind of emotional pain, or trauma, or a suppressed memory, can cause this to happen. If there’s anything wrong, anything holding you back, you can just talk to me, okay? I’ll listen, and I won’t tell anyone. Or if you’re not that comfortable with me, you can talk to your brother. It helps to talk ya know? At least that’s what Alphys tells me.’

 

Papyrus was taken aback by Undyne’s sudden seriousness. He looked away, his permanent grin still plastered on his face, now looking rather strained.

‘Or maybe you’re intentionally holding back?’ asked Undyne, ‘I also learned that in some cases, emotions can cause a monster’s magic to go out of control, and the monster needs to hold back as much as they can to prevent losing control, which prevents them from using their magic well.’

 

‘PERHAPS I REQUIRE MORE PRACTICE.’ he suggested quickly while trying to shift away from Undyne’s hand, getting uncomfortable with the topic. However, despite Undyne trying to be gentle with him, her hand held onto his shoulder with a vice-like grip that he couldn’t escape from.

 

‘Practice alone isn’t going to help.’ Undyne replied, not realizing how uncomfortable Papyrus was getting, ‘You need to-’

 

‘Undyne!!!’ she was interrupted by a high, flutey voice.

 

A small angler fish-like monster was gliding quickly towards them, squeaking ‘Undyne!!!’ over and over. She stopped in front of Undyne, panting, her hair falling all over her face.

 

‘What’s wrong, Meiren?’ Undyne asked her.

 

‘My sister! And some of our friends! We were playing dodgeball with our bullets when a rockslide happened! T...they all got trapped!!! Please! Please help them! You can lift up those rocks and save them right?’

 

‘Of course! The Royal Guards are always ready to help!’ Undyne replied, doing her best impress of a pose she had seen in an anime from Alphys’ collection. ‘Come on Papyrus! I’ll need some help from you.’

 

Both of them followed behind Meiren, and soon arrived at a cliff face that separated Waterfall from Hotland. A part of the cliff had caved in, blocked off by rubble from the rockslide.

 

Meiren floated up to the rubble, and pressed her face close to it. ‘Shyren!!!’ she called out, ‘Can you hear me!? I got Captain Undyne here!!! She’s gonna get you all out of there!’

 

A tiny, squeaky voice replied, but it was too muffled for them to hear what it was saying.

 

‘Okay, Papyrus, let’s get to work rescuing them!’ Undyne commanded, effortlessly lifting a large piece of rubble and suplexing it away.

 

Papyrus obeyed, scraping at the rubble and moving the rocks as fast as he could. He was strong, but nowhere near as strong as Undyne, who threw chunks of rocks larger than herself out of the way with no struggle.

 

That is, until they came upon a chunk of rubble bigger than the both of them. The rubble appeared to be mostly made of metal, possibly an old piece of a building from Hotland that came crashing down into Waterfall during the rockslide. Both the fish and skeleton tried to lift it out of the way together, but it wouldn’t even budge. 

 

Undyne attempted punching through it. But even though she made several sizable dents on it, it appeared to be too thick for even her to punch through. She groaned, kicking the rubble in frustration. She did not dare to use her spear bullets to break it in fear or accidentally injuring the monsters behind it.

 

‘Papyrus, stay here with them!’ she commanded, ‘I’ll go get some of the Doggi Royal Guards, all of us working together should be able to get this of the way, or at least break through it.’

 

Without waiting for a response, she rushed off to the direction of Snowdin, leaping across streams and chasms as her way of shortcuts.

 

Papyrus gazed at the piece of metal thoughtfully, if Undyne was not able to break through it, he wouldn’t be able to. Unless…

 

‘MEIREN.’ he said, turning to Shyren’s sister, who had been staring at them anxiously, ‘I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM ABOUT TO ATTEMPT SOMETHING THAT MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP YOUR SISTER AND FRIENDS. BUT I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST THAT YOU TURN AWAY, AND ALSO MOVE AWAY A LITTLE, AS IT MIGHT GET VERY...EXPLOSIVE.’

 

‘Do I...have to turn away?’ she asked.

 

‘YES, IT MIGHT...HURT YOUR EYES.’ replied Papyrus, in truth, he did not want her to see him using any abilities he had tried to keep hidden for years.

 

She nodded, and turned away, covering her eyes with her fins.

 

Papyrus, focusing all his concentration, quickly created a shortcut and entered the small space behind the rocks where the monsters were trapped. They were very startled by his sudden appearance.

 

‘PLEASE REMAIN CALM!’ his voiced boomed above their yells, effectively silencing them, ‘I AM PAPYRUS, A ROYAL GUARD IN TRAINING! THE ROYAL GUARD IS HERE TO HELP!’

 

The other monsters, in their panic, did not even question how he suddenly appeared with them. Shyren drifted up to him and squeaked in a terrified, panicked voice.

 

‘Can...can you really get us out? Please hurry, my sister must be so worried and everyone’s getting stir crazy in here! Woshua can’t stop cleaning himself and everyone around him, and Aaron keeps flexing!’

 

‘nOOO, mUSCLES R...R GROSS!’ cried a Temmie who was trapped with them, horrified at Aaron’s constant flexing, ‘tEM FAINT NOW!’ she rolled over on the floor, legs in the air.

 

‘DO NOT FEAR! FOR HELP IS HERE!’ declared Papyrus, ‘I SHALL ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE BLOCKAGE THAT IS TRAPPING YOU IN HERE! FIRST OF ALL, I WOULD REQUEST OF ALL OF YOU TO STAND BACK, AND ALSO COVER YOUR EYES, TURN AWAY IF NEEDED! THIS MIGHT TAKE A LITTLE WHILE!’

 

The other monsters were so anxious to escape that they happily obliged without further question. Papyrus turned to face the rubble that blocked the way.

 

At that moment, Undyne was rushing back towards the scene. Behind her were the Doggi, barking in excitement and most of them running on all fours.

She was about to reach the rubble when a beam of energy shot out from behind the chunk of metal, sending it flying. At the same time, there was an ear shattering explosion, followed by a strong blast that made Undyne stop to shield her face.

 

Dust from the rubble and smoke from the explosion clouded the view for a while. As it cleared, Undyne saw Papyrus looking out from a hole the blast had created, behind him, cowering in fear and shock from the explosion, were the trapped monsters, all safe and sound.

 

Undyne froze in stunned shock for a moment, before quickly regaining her composure. She ran up to Papyrus, who gave her a surprised look, not expecting her to arrive back so soon.

 

‘Are you okay?’ she asked, barely waiting for Papyrus to give her a feeble nod. She turned and ordered the Doggi to take the other monsters back to their own homes.

 

The Doggi had their ears pricked and their heads tilted, curious at how the explosion had happened. But they eagerly obeyed Undyne without further question, and soon were leading the trapped monsters, as well as Meiren, back to their respective houses.

 

Undyne stayed behind with Papyrus. There was an awkward moment between them, Papyrus not wanting to look straight at Undyne, seemingly embarrassed about the explosion. Undyne was brimming with curiosity, but was not sure about what to say. 

 

‘So,’ she finally said, inwardly cringing at how awkward she sounded, ‘part of your magic includes making a beam that...explodes stuff?’

 

Papyrus remained silent for a few seconds, ‘IT...IT’S JUST A BEAM.’

 

‘You never used that before in any of our training sessions.’

 

‘I...DIDN’T FEEL LIKE IT WOULD BE...APPROPRIATE?’

 

‘You know, that beam of yours is pretty strong. You can easily blast a dummy to pieces with it, and very quickly defeat a human.’

 

While that seemed like a valid statement from Undyne, she noticed Papyrus turning away, looking down at the ground. She found it to be a strange reaction to her statement.

 

Maybe she shouldn’t pressure him too much. Perhaps this was a power he didn’t have much control over? And did not want to use it too much? She also wondered if Sans had this ability, since both of them were brothers after all. 

 

Nevertheless, such powerful magic would be very useful in the Royal Guard. Despite his inability, or refusal, to destroy even a dummy, Papyrus was surprisingly powerful. Undyne didn’t want to just kick him out of training simply because he couldn’t defeat a dummy. 

 

Perhaps more training will get him to feel more comfortable with using this ability. After all, he was very excited to join the Royal Guards, and his enthusiasm is just what she needs as well.

‘Papyrus?’ she began, as the skeleton turned to look at her, expression unreadable, ‘Listen, you really want to be in the Royal Guards right?’

 

‘OH, OF COURSE, UNDYNE, SIR!’ 

 

‘Well...I was thinking that you just need a bit more training. I mean, you’re already Royal Guard material, but more training will do you good. I’ll be happy to keep training you until I feel that you’re ready to join. How’s that sound?’

 

‘THAT SOUNDS FANTASTICAL, UNDYNE!’ Papyrus’ eye sockets shone in delight, ‘I WILL HAPPILY CONTINUE TO TRAIN UNDER YOU. YOU HAVE MY WORD!’

 

‘GREAT!’ Undyne’s grin returned, ‘So, we shall continue our training for today! You don’t mind training ending a little later today, do you?’ 

 

‘OF COURSE NOT!’ Papyrus replied as they both headed back to Undyne’s house, ‘AS LONG AS I AM BEING TRAINED BY YOU, I DO NOT MIND HOW LONG IT TAKES!’


	14. Puzzle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the late update again. ;w; Had a very bad writer's block for a while.

Dinner was simple that night.

 

Papyrus had attempted to make some macaroni and cheese earlier on, but after a while, Flowey saw him throwing it out. He had somehow managed to turn the macaroni and cheese into a rock-hard chunk, with bits of burnt cheese flaking off it, It took him a while to manage to scrap all of it out of the saucepan.

 

Despite managing to improve his cooking skills, Papyrus still wasn’t able to cook a decent pasta dish. It somehow always ended up as a disaster.

 

Papyrus seemed to lose some motivation once the ordeal was over. He simply heated up leftovers from the evening before, and made a bowl of oatmeal for each of them.

 

Flowey didn’t mind, he was starting to like oatmeal. He could see why it was Papyrus’ favorite food.

 

As usual, Papyrus delivered a tray of food to the child upstairs. Finding the child asleep once again, he removed some of the bones from the door and slid the tray into the room. With that done, he made the bones reappear, closed the door, and headed back downstairs.

 

For the rest of the evening, he and Flowey sat in the living room. Flowey was still trying to solve the jigsaw puzzle he was given, so there was barely any conversation between them.

 

Papyrus was drawing in his sketchbook, making deft, quick strokes with his pencil, and turning to the next page to continue sketching after he was satisfied. Now and again, he looked up at Flowey, as if he wanted to speak. But he would change his mind, shake his head, and continue sketching.

 

‘There!!! Done!!!’ exclaimed Flowey after about an hour, grinning in satisfaction at the completed jigsaw puzzle laid out on the floor. ‘Papyrus!’ he turned around, beaming, ‘Look! I did it! I solved your stupid puzzle!!’

 

He saw Papyrus gazing at him, expression a little forlorn and seemingly lost in thought.

 

‘Hey! Aren’t you gonna praise me or something? Papyrus?’ Flowey moved over to Papyrus, waving a vine in front of his face.

 

Papyrus blinked, looked down at the puzzle briefly, and nodded. ‘THAT’S...VERY GOOD, FLOWEY.’

 

Flowey frowned in annoyance, ‘What’s up with you? Come on, I’ve been solving this puzzle since last night! Surely “The Great Papyrus” can show more enthusiasm than that!?’

 

Papyrus put down his sketchbook, looking so solemn that Flowey felt a little afraid. ‘FLOWEY…?’ he began, ‘CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING?’

 

‘...sure?’ Flowey felt a growing sense of unease at this uncharacteristically serious behavior.

 

‘IT’S...KIND OF AN AWKWARD QUESTION, SO IF YOU DON’T WANT TO ANSWER IT, IT’S FINE. IT IS SIMPLY SPECULATIONS ON MY PART, AND PROBABLY NOT VERY SENSITIVE OR PLEASANT AS WELL, SO…’

 

‘Just get on with it.’

 

Papyrus took a deep breath, somehow, even though he had no lungs. He turned to look straight at Flowey, and said, ‘WERE YOU SOMEONE ELSE BEFORE YOU BECAME FLOWEY?’

 

Flowey froze.

 

For a moment he wondered if he had misheard Papyrus.

 

But Papyrus continued, ‘AS IN, WERE YOU A MONSTER OF SOME SORT THAT GOT TURNED INTO A FLOWER?’

 

Flowey felt sick.

 

How.

 

How did he know!???

 

In his fear and confusion, he snapped fiercely at Papyrus, ‘What!? What do you MEAN!??’ His face twisted into a terrifying form.

 

Papyrus continued to stare straight at Flowey, managing to keep his composure despite the disturbing face glaring down at him.

 

‘I REMEMBER LEARNING, BACK WHEN I WAS JUST A BABY BONES, ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED A LONG TIME AGO. BACK THEN, MR DREEMUR AND MISS TORIEL WERE STILL TOGETHER. THEY HAD A SON, AND THEY ALSO ADOPTED A HUMAN CHILD. BUT THEN, THE HUMAN CHILD DIED. THEIR SON WAS SO DEVASTATED THAT HE ABSORBED THE HUMAN’S SOUL, AND LEFT THE UNDERGROUND. BUT HE WAS ATTACKED BY HUMANS, SO HE RETURNED BACK UNDERGROUND, AND DIED ON A BED OF GOLDEN FLOWERS.’

 

Flowey winched. He hated being reminded of that incident.

 

‘THE DUST OF THE PRINCE WAS SPREAD OUT OVER THE FLOWERS. AS A BABY BONES, I WAS TOLD THAT THE FLOWERS WERE SACRED BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN THE ESSENCE OF THE PRINCE. I ALWAYS BELIEVED IN THIS, EVEN THOUGH A LOT OF PEOPLE DISMISSED IT AS A FAIRYTALE. MANY YEARS LATER, WHEN I GREW UP, ALL OF THOSE FLOWERS VANISHED ONE DAY.’

 

‘SOME MONSTERS SAY THAT THE FLOWERS WERE BROUGHT TO LIFE BY THE PRINCE’S DUST, AND HAD GAINED SENTIENCE AND MOTILITY. OTHER MONSTERS SAY THAT SOMEONE PICKED THE FLOWERS. THERE WAS A BIT OF UPROAR OVER IT FOR A WHILE, BECAUSE A LOT OF THE OLDER MONSTERS BELIEVED THE FLOWERS TO BE SACRED AND COULD NOT BE PICKED. BUT AFTER A WHILE, PEOPLE FORGOT ABOUT IT.’

 

‘...AND THEN, I MET YOU.’

 

Flowey’s face grew less twisted, but he was still defensive and continued to glare at Papyrus, ‘And what makes you think I had anything to do with that!?’

 

‘THE SPIRIT WAS WHAT MADE ME SUSPECT IT.’ Papyrus explained, ‘YOU TOLD ME THAT THE SPIRIT USED TO BE A HUMAN. ONLY SEVEN HUMANS EVER FELL UNDERGROUND, EIGHT COUNTING FRISK.’

 

‘YOU ALSO TOLD ME THAT THIS SPIRIT IS BODILESS AND SOULLESS. ALL OF THE HUMANS WHO PERISHED UNDERGROUND HAD THEIR SOULS TAKEN BY ASGORE, WHO STORED THEIR SOULS TO BE USED ON THE BARRIER. THEIR BODIES WERE PLACED IN ASGORE’S CASTLE. ALL EXCEPT ONE. THE FIRST HUMAN’S SOUL IS SAID TO HAVE DISAPPEARED AFTER THE PRINCE DIED, AND THEIR BODY WAS TAKEN AWAY BY MISS TORIEL WHEN SHE LEFT MR DREEMUR. IT IS ONLY POSSIBLE THAT THE SPIRIT IS THE FIRST HUMAN.’

 

Flowey gaped.

 

‘YOU SEEM TO KNOW WHO THIS SPIRIT IS, AND ACTED FLUSTERED WHEN I TRIED TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE SPIRIT. WE LEARNED THAT THE PRINCE WAS ALWAYS VERY CLOSE TO THE FIRST HUMAN, AND THEY WERE LIKE SIBLINGS.

 

‘BESIDES, YOU SEEM TO GET...VERY EMOTIONAL AROUND MR DREEMUR AND MISS TORIEL. ESPECIALLY DURING THE PHONE CALL WHEN MR DREEMUR SAID THAT YOU REMINDED HIM OF THE PRINCE. I...MAY BE MISTAKEN ABOUT THIS, I SUPPOSE.’

 

Flowey had been backing away from Papyrus slowly as he spoke. He now sank down into his flower pot, his face hidden beneath his petals. He remained completely silent for a long time.

 

Papyrus kept silent as well, waiting for a response.

 

Finally, Flowey raised his head. He glanced over at Papyrus, looking weary. He shook away little teardrops that had fallen onto his petals.

 

Papyrus gave him an anxious but genuine smile.

 

‘I…’ he began softly, turning his eyes away from Papyrus, ‘I...guess...I guess I can’t really hide it anymore. I can’t come up with anything to deny all of that. Might as well just come clean to you.’

 

Papyrus brightened up, ‘SO, YOU _ARE_ THE LOST PRINCE!?’ he exclaimed in delight.

 

‘Y...yes,’ Flowey replied after some hesitated, ‘But before you go on, tell me. Tell me how you knew. How did you figure all of that out?’

 

‘IT’S KIND OF LIKE A JIGSAW PUZZLE! YOU JUST NEED ALL THE PIECES. AT FIRST, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE BECAUSE THE PIECES ARE SCATTERED, BUT ONCE YOU START PIECING IT TOGETHER, YOU START SEEING WHAT THE PICTURE ON THE PUZZLE IS!’

 

‘I REMEMBER SOME OF THE MONSTER HISTORY I LEARNED BACK WHEN I WAS A BABY BONES, AND ALSO STUFF YOU TOLD ME. I USED THESE AS CLUES, OR PUZZLE PIECES. I THEN BEGAN TRYING TO PIECE ALL THESE CLUES TOGETHER, AND FINALLY, I BEGAN TO SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE, AS IN THE WHOLE MYSTERY BEHIND YOU AND THE SPIRIT. THE REST WAS JUST GUESS WORK.’

 

Flowey turned to glance at his completed jigsaw puzzle, which showed a picture of a field of flowers under a starry night sky. He felt that Papyrus’ analogy of jigsaw puzzles made a lot of sense.

 

‘I AM TRYING TO RECALL WHAT THE PRINCE’S NAME WAS.’ Papyrus remarked, ‘IT SOUNDED VERY MUCH LIKE MR DREEMUR’S NAME. AS...ASG...’’

 

‘It’s Asriel.’

 

‘ASRIEL!’ exclaimed Papyrus, ‘THAT IS A LOVELY NAME.’

 

‘...well it _was_ my name.’ Flowey responded, turning to look at Papyrus, whose eye sockets were somehow shining, ‘I...don’t want to be called that anymore.’

 

‘WHY NOT?’

 

‘It’s just...not me anymore.’ Flowey shook his head, ‘Asriel was a nice boss monster, he loved everyone and everyone loved him back. He had a family, he had friends. Everyone put their hope in him because he was the prince. But me? No one loves me. I can’t love anyone even if they did. I have no family, I have no friends, and no one believes in me. I’m just too distant from who I used to be. I don’t deserve to be called Asriel anymore.’

 

‘I...I UNDERSTAND.’ Papyrus replied with a nod, ‘SO SHALL I CONTINUE TO CALL YOU FLOWEY?’

 

‘Yeah...Flowey is fine.’ Flowey turned his eyes away from Papyrus, ‘You know, I just don’t understand you. Why do you care so much about me? I’m not good. It’s hard for me to feel positive emotions without a soul, and it’s hard for me to feel love. I’m rude, grumpy, hate most people, and I’m not even a good person to talk to. Why do you even bother with me?’

 

‘BECAUSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT EVERYONE CAN BE GOOD IF THEY TRY!’ Papyrus grinned as he did a pose, ‘AND I CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE ALREADY TRYING YOUR BEST TO BE GOOD FLOWEY. MR DREEMUR DOES LIKE HAVING YOU AROUND AFTER ALL, AND FRISK IS GOOD FRIENDS WITH YOU.’

 

‘But I’m NOT good,’ Flowey insisted, his expression growing sad again, ‘I...I did horrible things in the past. I was mean to you, and I even tried to get you to do horrible things! I guess you can’t remember any of that, but if you knew what I did, you’ll hate me. How could anyone forgive me for what I’ve done?’

‘I AM SURE THAT I CAN, FLOWEY.’ replied Papyrus, before falling silent.

 

Something was coming back to him, clawing out from the back of his mind. A memory so faded and hazy that it felt like it happened decades ago, but yet so strong that it could not be more than a year old.

 

‘You’re so cool, Papyrus!’ he could almost vividly remember Flowey saying to him, as he sat in the snow by the river, ‘But golly, you’re so weak! You never stand up for yourself and you’re too nice! Don’t you know that niceness can get you nowhere?’

 

‘Help people? What’s the point of helping people, Papyrus? You’re so silly. Trust me, I’ve tried helping people before, it never works out. No matter how hard you try, all your effort will either go to waste, or people will just take advantage of you.’

 

‘What? Don't you believe me? Aren’t I your best friend? You idiot.’

 

‘Papyrus, I would like to try something different this time.’ the recollection was growing more clear, more painful, ‘Oh you don’t remember the last few times? It’s okay. I want you to help me, we’re going to have some fun.’

 

‘Oh, you DON’T want to help me? Fine. Let’s see if you would change your mind when you find that your smiley trashbag of a brother is nothing but a pile of dust.’

 

The memories were crowding back in full force now. He remembered warning his brother about a talking flower once. Once? Or was it many times? No matter how many times he tried, his brother would simply disregard it as someone using an Echo Flower to play a prank on him.

 

‘Now look what you made me do, Papyrus.’ Flowey had said with a giant grin on his face, a small pile of dust behind him, ‘Now I will have to reset, and your memory will be wiped clean again. Me getting rid of smiley trashbag has caused me so many resets already. When will you ever learn?’

 

\---------

‘Papyrus?!’

 

Papyrus sat upright, suddenly realizing that Flowey was looking at him with an expression of fear and concern.

 

‘Are...you okay? You have that blank look on your face again…’

 

He became aware that he was gripping the sides of the couch so tightly that he had torn holes into the fabric. He also noticed tears filling his eyes, which he hurriedly blinked away.

 

‘You look sick, do you need to rest?’ Flowey continued to ask.

 

‘FLOWEY?’ Papyrus said, ignoring his concerned questions, ‘ALTHOUGH YOU WERE BAD- EVEN IF YOU WERE BAD IN THE PAST. YOU REALLY ARE TRYING YOUR BEST TO CHANGE. AND AS LONG AS YOU ARE TRYING TO BE GOOD, I BELIEVE IN YOU. I KNOW THAT YOU CAN MAKE IT IF YOU KEEP TRYING.’

 

Flowey found himself feeling oddly encouraged by Papyrus’ insistence. He wasn’t exactly convinced, but he did silently nod and gave a weak smile.

 

‘HOWEVER, BACK TO THE MATTERS AT HAND!’ Papyrus swiftly changed the topic, ‘I WISHED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR IDENTITY BECAUSE I WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SPIRIT. THEY WERE YOUR SIBLING, WEREN’T THEY? I WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM.’

 

‘Chara? Yeah, we were really close when we were still alive...and when I was, you know, still Asriel.’

 

‘CHARA? IS THAT THEIR NAME? IT’S A LOVELY NAME, IT IS ALSO A NAME OF A STAR. I READ ABOUT IT IN ONE OF SANS’ ASTRONOMY BOOKS.’

 

‘It is?’ Flowey looked surprised, ‘I never knew. They always joked about how much their name sounded like “character”.’

 

‘WHAT WERE THEY LIKE? AND WHAT WAS THEIR FAVORITE FOOD, BESIDES CHOCOLATE?’

 

‘They were...they were actually really nice back then. They’re acting horrible now, but I remember them being very nice. The only thing was that they teased me a lot and called me a crybaby, but they were still very protective of me and always took the blame whenever I got into trouble. They also loved mom and dad a lot, they always made gifts for mom and dad. They liked to make drawings for mom, or knit sweaters for dad.’

 

‘They did tell me that me and my parents were the only people who have ever showed them kindness. They had a very hard life on the Surface. The reason why they jumped into the Underground was...not pleasant. All you have to know is that they hate humanity, and always wanted us monsters to destroy humanity some day. I guess they’re bitter about how they were treated by other humans and wanted revenge.’

 

‘I SEE. I SHALL NOT ASK ANY FURTHER THEN.’

 

‘As for their favorite food? I mean, they’ve always liked chocolate. Mom and dad always kept chocolate in the fridge for them. Why do you ask?’

 

‘BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE SOMETHING FOR THEM, SOMETHING THEY WOULD REALLY ENJOY EATING!’

 

‘You’re trying to bribe them with food to stop them from killing people!?’

 

‘WHY, YES. YES I AM.’ declared Papyrus proudly, ‘ISN’T THERE A HUMAN SAYING ABOUT HOW THE BEST WAY TO SOMEONE’S HEART IS THROUGH THEIR GUTS? OR SOMETHING? APPARENTLY, IT MEANS THAT THE BEST WAY TO GAIN AFFECTION FROM SOMEONE IS THROUGH VERY DELICIOUS FOOD.’

 

‘Never heard of that saying, but I guess it’s a good idea. It’s a bit sneaky though, so I love it. Well, mom and dad sometimes made pudding out of chocolate, and they loved that.’

 

‘I HAVE...NEVER LEARNED TO MAKE PUDDING,’ Papyrus looked a little sad, ‘BUT! I CAN TRY! I SHALL TRY TOMORROW, AND OFFER IT TO THEM DURING BREAKFAST.’

 

‘Sounds good to me!’ Flowey grinned as he bobbed up and down on his stem, feeling excited once again after a long time.

 

‘Oh yeah...Papyrus. I wanted to ask. Why do you keep believing in people so much?’

 

Papyrus suddenly got up, as if wanting to change to topic quickly, ‘IT’S GETTING LATE, PERHAPS IT’S TIME YOU WENT TO BED.’

 

‘What!? No!’ Even after all these years, Flowey still kept Asriel’s habit of not liking early bedtimes, ‘Come on, our conversation was just getting good! And how do you know what time is it anyway? You don’t even have a watch!’

 

Papyrus dramatically held up his left arm to his face, as if checking a watch that wasn’t there, ‘GOODNESS ME FLOWEY! IT’S GETTING VERY LATE! IT IS NOW BEDTIME FOR BOTH OF US!’

 

Flowey groaned, feeling annoyed at Papyrus all over again. This skeleton seemed to know how to get his way when he wanted to. Regardless, he understood that he couldn’t change Papyrus’ mind, and was willing let Papyrus tuck him in.

 

Papyrus bade the flower good night, before heading to Sans’ old room. He laid down in his sleeping bag, deciding to try to sleep for once tonight.

 

However, it took him a long time to finally doze off. And even when he did, his restless sleep was plagued with nightmares.


	15. Escape

Later that night, the child awoke.

 

Papyrus was just dozing off, and Flowey was already sleeping soundly in the living room. Aside from the child getting out of their sleeping bag, the house was dead silent.

 

Having only just awoken, they had no idea about the conversation between Papyrus and Flowey earlier. They ate their dinner, now cold from being left out for so long, and finished off their meal with what was left of their chocolate.

 

‘Two more bones, Frisk,’ said Chara, as the child turned to look at the window, ‘And we shall be free. I am positive that we can make our escape tonight.’

 

The child headed to the window after their meal, pulling out the knife. They began to slowly pry away the bones, being as silent and careful as possible. 

 

Several hours later, the last bone was pulled away from the window. They stood up, opened the lock, and slid the window open. 

 

They peered out of the window, ignoring the freezing draft that blew at them. Snowdin was dark, silent, and extremely cold. They looked down and noticed that there was quite a drop to the snowy ground from the window. 

 

But the child, in their excitement, was not deterred by any of this. They noticed some fir trees growing next to the window, taller than the house itself. They climbed onto the window sill, balanced themselves on it for a moment, and took a flying leap onto a nearby fir tree. 

 

It was a terrible idea, as they never thought about how prickly fir tree leaves were, and that the snow piled onto the tree was so cold that it hurt their hands. They also never really thought about how to get down. They couldn’t exactly climb down due to how prickly the leaves were, and the idea of jumping down from that height terrified them.

 

They didn’t need to wonder about that for long, as the branch gave way with a loud crack and they found themselves falling onto the snow below.

 

Thankfully the snow was thick enough to cushion their fall, but they were worried Papyrus or Flowey would have awakened at the noise. They took to their heels and ran towards Waterfall as fast as they could, grateful that the snow masked the noise of their footsteps.

 

They were in for a surprise upon reaching the entrance of Waterfall. Tall spikes blocked their way, and before the spikes laid a very familiar looking puzzle. Xs were drawn onto the ground, and to solve it, one had to turn all the Xs into Os by walking over them.

 

The child groaned, kicking at the snow in frustration. A note laid beside the puzzle, pinned into the ground by a bone.

 

“DEAR FRISK AND SPIRIT,” said the note, written in a large font, ‘IF YOU ARE READING THIS, IT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE ESCAPED. I GUESS I CAN WISH YOU CONGRATULATIONS FOR MANAGING TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. BUT PLEASE, IF YOU ARE STILL PLANNING TO KILL EVERYONE ON THE SURFACE, I HOPE THIS NOTE CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND. IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO-”

 

The child ripped up the note before they finished reading.

 

‘He is very stubborn, annoyingly so,’ mumbled Chara, as they stomped the pieces of the note into the snow.

 

‘I guess we have to solve the puzzle, it’s the only way into Waterfall after all.’ Frisk said, defeated.

 

The child begrudgingly started to solve the puzzle, making mistakes in their impatience and having to reset the puzzle a few times. 

 

They eventually managed to solve the puzzle. The spikes vanished, and they hurried into Waterfall-

 

-only to be greeted by another puzzle.

 

They now realized that Papyrus was simply stalling them for time, trying to deter them from reaching the Surface. And he was doing this by placing puzzles all the way along their journey to the end of the Underground.

 

The child felt a temper tantrum rising. They would have happily rushed back to the house to murder Papyrus in his sleep if they could. But they quickly realized that would not help much, as they would still be trapped Underground by his puzzles even if he was dead.

 

Having no other opinion, they ended up having to solve every single puzzle they encountered, as precious hours ticked away before they finally managed to leave Waterfall and enter Hotland.

 

While they were still slowly making their way through Waterfall, Papyrus had awoken back at the house.

 

Despite his exhaustion, he still headed downstairs to make breakfast, trying his very best to be cheerful. His steps were slower and less bouncy, and his humming sounded broken and out of tune. He hoped Flowey, who was just waking up and yawning widely, wouldn’t notice.

 

He prepared a tray of toast and three bowls of oatmeal. Taking the tray in one hand, and Flowey in the other, he ended back upstairs to his room.

 

‘HUMAN! I HAVE ARRIVED WITH BREAKFAST!’ he announced, placing Flowey’s flower pot on the floor and opening the door with one hand.

 

The room was, of course, devoid of the child.

 

A cold draft was blowing through the open window.

 

It was a good thing Papyrus placed Flowey on the floor, because his grip on the tray loosened and it crashed onto the floor, spilling broken dishes and food all over the carpet.

 

Flowey gaped in horror, eyes still scanning the room as if hoping the child was still around.

 

‘FLOWEY,’ Papyrus said, his expression dark and his voice lower than usual, ‘WE MUST HEAD OUT TO FIND THEM IMMEDIATELY.’

 

‘B...but they would have gone to the surface by now, it’s probably been hours since they escaped and-’

 

‘I SPENT THE PAST FEW NIGHTS SETTING UP PUZZLES ALL ALONG THE WAY TO THE SURFACE, BESIDES IN HOTLAND, AS I DID NOT WISH TO GO THERE. THE PUZZLES SHOULD BE ABLE TO STALL THEM FOR AT LEAST A FEW HOURS.’ 

 

‘You spent the past few nights making puzzles instead of sleeping!?’

 

‘I HAD TO, I...REALLY DO NOT WANT THEM TO REACH THE SURFACE.’ Papyrus looked sad for a brief moment, ‘I WAS HOPING THAT MAKING THEM SOLVE THE PUZZLES WOULD HELP THEM CHANGE THEIR MINDS. AT THIS POINT, THEY MIGHT STILL BE SOMEWHERE UNDERGROUND.’

 

He picked up Flowey and headed back downstairs, his footsteps heavy. He opened the front door, removing the bones blocking the door as he did. 

 

‘FLOWEY, LEAVE THE FLOWER POT AND LOOK FOR THEM IN WATERFALL,’ he commanded in a voice Flowey did not dare to disobey, ‘I SHALL TAKE A SHORTCUT TO HOTLAND.’ he cringed a little, ‘I DISLIKE THAT PLACE, BUT I HAVE NO CHOICE THIS TIME.’

 

Flowey nodded. He slid out of the flower pot, pushing his roots into the snowy ground and shuddering at the cold. He then pulled his entire body underground, and began to quickly burrow towards Waterfall, extending his roots and stem as far as possible to detect any movements from the child.

 

Papyrus placed the flower pot onto the floor. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on forming a shortcut to Hotland. In a flash, he vanished from Snowdin and reappeared at the entrance of Hotland.

 

At the same time, the child had solved the last puzzle at the end of Waterfall, and could see the lava of Hotland just ahead of them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter this time.  
> I apologize for the long delay, again. Been busy with work and also sick for a while as well. Thanks for being patient. ;w;


	16. The Beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3

At the entrance of Hotland, to the child’s annoyance, they saw that Papyrus standing in the middle of the path. He raised one hand towards them.

 

‘HALT HUMAN.’ 

 

He looked weary, exhausted. He was not standing as tall, slumping over a little, and his head was bowed slightly so that he did not look the child straight in the eyes. His expression was full of sadness, with an empty grin that did not spread as wide as usual. There seemed to be dark bags under his eye sockets. It was a sad sight.

 

Great, this was the last thing they wanted. Even though this meant free EXP from fighting and killing him, they did not want to go through the effort. They desperately wanted to reach the surface and begin the destruction of this timeline. 

 

Aside from that, even though they didn’t want to admit it, they still felt a bit of guilt. Frisk had always liked Papyrus, and Chara had started to grow fond of him. Betraying Papyrus by running away, going to the surface, and killing everyone including his brother seemed like a terrible thing to do to him, after how kindly he had treated them.

 

Still, they had to find a way past him somehow.

 

‘I thought you hated Hotland.’ said the human drily.

 

‘I...DO.’ replied Papyrus, ‘BUT, I HAD TO COME HERE, TO MEET YOU.’

 

‘Well, you did not have to. You are simply wasting your effort. Now leave, I am tired of you.’

 

‘THERE’S ALWAYS A PEACEFUL ALTERNATIVE, FRISK AND CHARA! I AM SURE EVERYONE WILL ACCEPT BOTH OF YOU AGAIN IF YOU ARE WILLING TO CHANGE. WE CAN ALL LIVE PEACEFULLY, EVERYONE WILL BE FRIENDS.’

 

The child took a step back in shock upon hearing both of their names being called.

 

‘H...how did you...my name...WHO TOLD YOU!?’ cried Chara in horror and fury.

 

‘FLOWEY DID. OR ASRIEL, AS YOU CALL HIM. BUT PLEASE, CAN WE NOT TALK THIS OUT, CHARA? I KNOW YOU HAD A HARD LIFE, AND I SUPPOSE IT IS AWFUL TO BE DEAD TOO. BUT I AM SURE MR DREEMUR AND MISS TORIEL WILL UNDERSTAND, AND WILL ACCEPT YOU AGAIN, IF YOU JUST TALK TO THEM. WE CAN ALL BE FRIENDS AND RETURN TO THE SURFACE JOYOUSLY.’ 

 

‘You do not understand, do you? I cannot simply live peacefully with anyone any longer, not after what I have done, not with all this bitterness I carry within me.’ replied Chara indignantly, ‘I despise humanity after what they have done to me, and I am no longer fond of monsterkind either. They left me to die. I was buried for thousands of years, feeling my body rotting in the ground. My SOUL was taken from me, I felt nothing but emptiness within me until Frisk arrived.’

 

‘Can you not fathom this?’ they continued before Papyrus had a chance to speak, ‘I suppose not, you naive, foolish monster. You cannot understand how much I have suffered. You cannot understand how much I yearned for death even as a young child. You will never understand the anger and bitterness building up in me for thousands of years while being dead.’

 

‘Why even bother to stop us? Then again, I suppose you cannot remember the last time you tried to stop us. You were not able to halt our journey, you were not able to save anyone. Undyne, Mettaton, and even your brother perished because of you! All you do, all you are able to do, is to stand there and try to be ‘nice’. Do you not understand that being ‘nice’ will get you nowhere? You are a burden to everyone. You are useless. Killing you now will be a favor to everyone, including your brother.’

 

The child continued to rain insults down upon him, beating his spirit and his will into submission, destroying any hope and confidence he ever had left. Throughout the verbal assault, he was slumping over more and more, his head bowing lower and lower. Finally, his legs gave way, and he fell onto the floor upon his knees. 

 

He curled his body into himself, burying his face in his hands. His body seemed to quiver and shake slightly, almost as if he were silently crying.

 

What was once a tall, powerful skeleton, full of confidence, pride, and hope in everyone and everything, had now been reduced to a trembling, sobbing mess of bones.

 

This was a perfect moment to kill him. His defence had dropped to 0, he had no will to fight back or defend himself. He was simply leaving himself vulnerable right in front of them. The child raised their knife, ready to reduce him to dust in one blow.

 

But-

 

After holding the knife above him for a while-

 

They lowered it slowly.

 

Their hands were shaking, and they almost dropped their knife.

 

They couldn’t. 

 

They couldn’t do it.

 

No matter how hard they tried to raise their knife again, they simply couldn’t bring themselves to do it.

 

They turned, and began walking quickly away from the skeleton.

 

Guilt was eating away at them. 

 

But they pushed it aside, they ignored it as much as they could.

 

There was a world to destroy, one single skeleton will not stand in their way.

 

Killing him would be a waste anyway, they told themselves. Besides, it’s unlikely he would stop them anymore, he was too far gone and too broken.

 

They continued their walk through Hotland towards New Home. There were no more electrical lights, and the only light source came from the lava below them. They should tread carefully.

  
  


…

 

As for Papyrus…

 

All the hurt, all the feelings of betrayal, all the bitterness he felt had reached its limit. He had been holding back for days, telling himself over and over to have hope, to believe in the child. But now, whatever hope he had in them was completely shattered. Combined with the physical and mental exhaustion he felt from dealing with them, missing his brother, and not sleeping at all for days, his mind could no longer rationalize his thoughts.

 

Something from his past was catching up to him, something he had forced out from himself for so long. It was coming back fast and he couldn’t stop it.

 

His only thought right now was to stop them. His mind clung onto them mentioning that they wanted to kill his brother, and that simply added to the bitterness. He had to stop them! He had to keep his brother safe! He had to stop them no matter what!!!

  
  
  
  


Words of encouragement did not stop them. Believing in them did not stop them. Being friends with them did not stop them. Traps and puzzles did nothing, they simply escaped.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


there was only one thing left that he could do to stop them

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**_KILL THEM._ **

  
  
  


He let out a loud scream.

 

The child froze in their tracks, covering their ears as they did. The scream was piercing, horrible, full of anguish. There was something darkly primal and wild about it. And, the child realized, to their horror, that there was a terrifying familiarity to it.

 

They lowered their hands from their ears, and slowly turned around after some hesitation.

 

Papyrus had fallen to the floor, and was writhing around. He was letting out loud whimpers and sharp gasps of breath. Whatever was happening to him was clearly agonizing.

 

The child was horrified. They wanted to look away from the struggling skeleton, they wanted to run, but they were petrified with fear.

 

A bright flash of magic ripped across Papyrus’ body, causing him to let out another scream. It was bright orange, but there was a certain darkness to it, an ugliness that they couldn’t describe. 

 

And then, the transformation began. 

 

His back began arching, spikes pushed their way through his backbone, and a spiky tail grew out from the end of his spine. His gloves and boots were torn off as his phalanges turned into razor sharp claws. His joints snapped painfully and twisted around, turning him into a quadrupedal creature. His skull no longer looked humanoid, and had formed a large muzzle, filled with teeth, as well as two pairs of horns. 

 

The child began to back away, their steps shaky. They recognized the shape of his skull.

 

It looked exactly like the strange skull-like Blasters Sans had used on them, a long time ago.

 

Only now, sitting upon the shoulders of a giant skeletal beast, it looked far more terrifying and twisted. 

 

Eventually, the beast stopped struggling. It laid still for a while, before pulling itself onto its four feet, and facing the child. Throughout the entire transformation, it had been growing in size. It now towered far above them, they were barely any taller than its knees. All of its clothes, including _ his  _ scarf, had disappeared somehow. The only thing left on it was a red collar around it neck. 

 

What used to be Papyrus now glared down at them. Two large orange lights burned in its eye sockets, with little wisps of orange magic floating around its eyes and mouth. There was no recognition in those eyes at all. Its expression was full of hatred and fury.

 

And then, it opened his mouth, aiming for the child. The familiar noise of a Blaster charging up sounded, and a bright orange light began to form in his mouth.

 

The child finally turned and fled, fear helping them gain speed. Alphys’ lab was up ahead, and the door was thankfully left open. They ran into the building just as a blast hit the ground outside. The shock of the blast itself almost threw them off their feet, but they managed to steady themselves.

 

They stood in the darkness of the abandoned lab, waiting to see what the creature would do next. They knew that they should keep running, but-

 

Another blast ripped open a wall of the building, tearing through the brick and concrete. Through the dust that had risen from the debris, they could see the creature glaring at them through the hole in the wall, baring its teeth at them, snarling.

 

With a cry of terror, they continued to run. 

 

They ran out through the backdoor of the lab, and fled down the suspended corridors. They could feel the corridors shaking and hear loud footfalls as the beast chased after them. Now and then they had to duck out of the way as the beast fired another blast at them. The blast was always terrifying close to them, and once they had the fabric of their sleeve burned off by the shearing heat from the blast. But they ignored the pain and continued running.

 

They soon came across a conveyor belt, now turned off. As they ran along it, they realized that they could no longer feel or hear the beast’s footsteps. They turned to look for him.

 

To their horror, they saw the beast running  _ alongside _ the conveyor belt, bounding through thin air as if it were the ground. They suddenly remembered that the Blasters Sans used seemed to suspend themselves in midair. Was this why part of Papyrus’ abilities including gravity manipulation?

 

But they didn’t have time to wonder about that. The expression on the beast’s face made them shudder. It stared at them as if they were its prey. They could not recognize anything ‘Papyrus’ in this beast at all, it seemed like an entirely different being altogether.

 

The lifts were all turned off, but they eventually managed to find a flight of stairs, and rushed up it to the upper floors. They didn’t know where they were going now, all they could think of was trying to escape this creature.

 

They ran past some debris, apparently made from partially collapsed buildings and corridors. The place really was falling apart without any monsters to maintain it. In a desperate attempt to escape, they ducked behind the debris, and laid flat on the floor, trying to be as silent as possible despite their frantic panting.

 

For a few moments, they could hear nothing besides some strange creaking and rumblings. They soon realized that it was coming from the structures around them. A lot of the buildings and corridors were already unstable. Both of their movements have caused the structures to become even more shaky. 

 

But they couldn’t worry about that now. They heard another noise, a low snarling that was growing closer and closer. There didn’t seem to be any footfalls, which meant that the creature was still floating, walking above the corridors. They couldn’t tell exactly where it was.

 

Very soon, they saw the beast stalking past, head turning side to side, searching for them. Its motions reminded them of a hunting predatory beast. They held their breath, utterly terrified, hoping that it would simply go past them without seeing them.

 

However, they saw the beast’s eyes glow bright for a few moment, and it suddenly turned towards them. Its snarl became a roar, and a bright light began to emit from its mouth again.

 

The child managed to leap out from behind the debris just in time. A blast ripped through the debris, tearing it to shred as if it were cardboard. The child began to run down the corridor again, with the beast in pursuit. 

 

They came across another one of the chasms that had to be crossed by being blown upwards by fans. They attempted to jump across it, but found that they could barely get off the ground. They looked down and realized that their soul had been turned bright blue. Whatever this beast was, it could clearly still use blue magic, a power unique to the skeleton brothers.

 

Regardless, they tried to jump across, missed their footing, and flailed desperately to reach the other end of the chasm. They managed to grab hold of the edge as they fell, dragged down by their soul. They scrambled over the edge, and continued running.

 

However, they were dragged down so much that they simply collapsed on the ground on their knees. They tried to stand, but it was no use. The blue magic pinned them onto the ground. No matter how much they struggled, they could do nothing to escape.

 

The beast was coming upon them from behind. It was now walking over the ground, its steps slow. It did not attack at first, and simply tilted its head in interested as it watched the child tried desperately to drag themselves away from it. 

 

Then, it opened its mouth and sent a blast directly at the child. The blast was not strong enough to kill them, but strong enough to injure them. The child screamed in pain. 

 

The back of their clothes was now partially tattered. Through the tattered clothes, red burn marks had formed on their back.

 

The child tried desperate to drag themselves away, crying and whimpering from the pain. The beast still watched. It seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in watching the child suffer, and allowed the child to attempt to escape in order to savor the moment more.

 

After a while, it seemed to get bored. It opened its mouth again, readying another blast…

  
  


...

  
  


‘PAPYRUS!!!’

 

In their sheer terror, the child cried out their friend’s name, hoping that, somehow, he would hear it.

 

The beast stopped, the light in its mouth fading. 

 

It gazed at the child, looking confused, trying to remember who the child was. Then, it blinked and shook its head, as if it had just woken up.

 

A look of horror crossed its face as it looked down over its own body. 

 

It whimpered when it saw how badly the child was injured. Shaking its head, it took a few steps back from the child. At the same time, it released the child from its blue magic.

 

The child got up from the ground, and turned to look at the beast.

 

It was still backing away, now trying to hide its face in its paws, whimpering in distress. Large, boiling tears formed at the bottom of its eye sockets. Despite how badly it had injured them, the child felt sorry for it.

 

A loud rumble from above made both of them look up.

 

The structures around them were unstable, and the blasts from the creature caused the integrity of the structures to worsen.

 

There was a low groan from the metal walkways above them, and then an ear-piercing snap as it broke in half.

 

The creature immediately dashed forward, knocking the child out of the way with its head. 

 

The child was flung across the walkway, sliding along the ground as they landed. They let out a sharp sob, their wounds hurting even more as they fell.

 

At the same time, there was a horrible crashing noises, and a sickening whimper.

 

The child glanced up, still laying on the ground. They screamed in horror.

 

The metal beams from above had landed directly on the creature, crushing it.

 

‘PAPYRUS!!!’

 

Despite the pain, they forced themselves to stand up. They ran over to the debris, limping slightly as they did. 

 

They sank down to their knees beside the debris, tears filling their eyes. They began to try to move some of the debris out of the way. The pieces of metal debris were heavy, but they were determined to find their friend. 

 

He saved them. They didn’t care that he had somehow transformed into a terrible beast and attempted to kill them. He managed to snap out of it, he recognized them, and he _ saved _ them. They couldn’t let him die. They couldn’t. They couldn’t.

 

After a while of shoving large pieces of debris out of the way, a familiar boney arm greeted them. It was no longer gigantic, or had the horrible clawed paws. It even wore the familiar red glove. 

 

The child took hold of the arm, and pulled as hard as they could.

 

Some of the debris shifted, and out from it came Papyrus, having returned to his normal skeleton form, complete with his usual outfit. His eyes were closed, and there were streams of tears running down his face. Several deep cuts ran along his body, and little flecks of dust was flaking off him.

 

As the child dragged him from the debris, his left arm fell off with a clatter. 

 

Papyrus didn’t even seem to notice it. He was completely exhausted, and simply slumped onto the floor. Tears continued to run down his face.

 

The child stared at the arm for a while, before turning their attention back to the skeleton. They gently reached out and wiped some of the tears from his face.

 

He opened his eyes, and backed away from the child, looking fearful.

 

‘Papyrus?’ the child said, their voice cracking slightly as a lump formed in their throat, ‘I...I am...I am not going to hurt you.’

 

‘I almost killed you.’ he whimpered, dragging himself away from them.

 

‘I almost killed you I almost killed you I almost killed you I lost control I lost control I almost killed you I’m sorry I’m sorry please forgive me please forgive meimsorryimsorryimsorryimsorryimsorry…’

 

The child didn’t know how to respond. 

 

At that moment, a very different rumbling noise was heard, coming towards them. Flowey suddenly popped out of the ground, somehow being able to tunnel through the metal corridor. 

 

Upon seeing Papyrus laying in a heap, badly injured and with an arm missing, Flowey gave a yelp and coiled a few loops of vines around the skeleton protectively. He turned to glare at the child.

 

‘What did you do to him!?’ he shouted, standing up to Chara for the first time in his entire life, as his concern and love for his skeleton friend turned into bravery, ‘WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!? HOW COULD YOU HURT HIM LIKE THIS!???’

 

‘I…’ the child backed away from the furious flower, ‘I did not do anything! I...I swear.’

 

‘LIAR! LOOK AT HIM! HOW COULD YOU!?’ Flowey turned back to Papyrus, leaning close to his face, ‘I’ll...I’ll get you back home safely, Papyrus. I’ll try to take good care of you. Please don’t die.’

 

Papyrus could barely hear what Flowey said, and simply whimpered, ‘I...I hurt them. I almost...almost killed them. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’

 

Flowey tilted his head in confusion.

 

‘Asr...Flowey?’ began the child, but paused for a moment when Flowey glared at them again, ‘L...listen. You must return him to the house, and allow him to rest and be healed. Please hurry.’

 

‘And let you run off and destroy the timeline again?’ replied Flowey sarcastically.

 

‘I am not leaving. I promise. I will not leave the Underground, and I will come with you and see that Papyrus is completely healed.’

 

‘Since when do  _ you _ care about anyone besides yourself!?’ 

 

‘Well, since when did  _ you _ !? Look, there is no time to argue. Get Papyrus back to the house immediately. I shall follow.’

 

If it wasn’t for the need to help Papyrus, Flowey would have happily stayed and argued with the child. However, he simply coiled more vines around Papyrus, being as gentle as he could.

 

‘Fine, I’ll take him back home, since I can move faster underground anyway. You better follow behind. Or, don’t. I don’t care. I just want Papyrus to be safe right now.’

 

With that said, he burrowed under the corridor again, taking Papyrus with him.

 

For a moment the child wondered how could Flowey burrow through metal, and how was he able to take Papyrus with him into the metal. Knowing that they would not get an answer by just standing there, they picked up Papyrus’ arm that Flowey had forgotten about, and ran back to the house as fast as they could, ignoring the pain of their wounds and hoping that Papyrus would be alright.


	17. Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the very delayed updates. Writer's block and irl problems are a bitch. Please enjoy this very short chapter.

Frisk and Chara ran most of the way back to the house, still holding onto Papyrus’ left arm as they did. They stopped a few times to rest, and as they were reaching Snowdin, began slowing down to a walk, practically dragging themselves along. The injuries on their back was gradually taking their toll on them.

 

Eventually, they managed to reach the house. They opened the front door, not bothering to knock, and closed it behind them to keep out the cold.

 

Flowey had already arrived, and laid out Papyrus on the couch. He was his flower pot once again, gazing at Papyrus in concern, unsure of what to do.

 

‘H...how...how is he?’ the child asked between pants for air.

 

Flowey was very surprised to see them. He had expected them to go to the Surface, and was prepared to find most monsters and humans dead by the time Papyrus was well enough to leave the Underground.

 

‘Not good,’ The child notice that there were tears forming in the flower’s eyes. ‘I can’t heal him. I...I never learned how to heal from mom or dad, and I don’t think I can use healing magic at all in this form, since I have no soul.’ he whimpered as a tear fell from his face and splashed onto the floor, ‘I...I don’t know what to do.’

 

Papyrus was in an awful state. He still had deep cuts all over his bones, and dust was still flaking off his body. He laid still, eyes closed, mumbling something none of them could hear. His soul was visible over his chest. It appeared cracked, showing that he was close to death. Little flecks of grey and black were scattered over it.

 

‘What...what are those strange blotches in his soul? Is a monster soul supposed to look like that?’ asked the child as they drew nearer to Papyrus.

 

‘No, and that worries me too,’ replied Flowey, ‘Please, Frisk, and Chara, think of some way to help him. I don’t know how long he’ll stay this way before completely turning into dust.’

 

The child thought for awhile, appearing calm on the outside but inwardly panicking, completely forgetting about their own injuries.

 

‘Wait, the food he brought with us was all monster food right? Monster food can heal. We have to get him to eat some of it!’

 

‘He keeps all of the food in the kitchen,’ answered Flowey, looking a little relieved at this idea, ‘I’m sure he has some milk in the fridge, it’s probably easier for him to drink rather than eat now.’ 

 

The child placed Papyrus’ left arm on the table and rushed to the kitchen, pulling open the fridge door hurriedly. There were still five cartons of milk in the fridge, which made them briefly wonder how many cartons of milk Papyrus brought with him in the first place considering they had been drinking milk for almost every meal the past few days. 

 

They grabbed the one closest to them, and ran back to the living room, not bothering to get a glass.

 

‘Prop him up a little, Flowey, so that he is able to drink the milk,’ they ordered. Flowey did so immediately, propping Papyrus into a sitting position with his vines.

 

The child unscrewed the cap of the carton, and stood on tiptoes to be able to tip the carton into the skeleton’s mouth. They did it slowly, making sure Papyrus swallowed the milk before they poured in more. They had no idea where the milk went, as none of it flowed out from the bottom of his jaw or from under him.

 

Skeleton monster anatomy was bizarre, they thought to themselves.

 

Soon, the carton was empty, and Papyrus looked much better. The dust had stopped flaking from his body, and the cuts had mostly been healed. The cracks on his soul had vanished, but the strange specks of black and grey still remained on it.

 

He opened his eyes, whimpering a little when he saw the child.

 

‘Please rest, Papyrus,’ the child said, as gently as they could, ‘You need to rest, and you shall get better.’

 

He whimpered again.

 

‘Don’t worry, I am not going to the Surface. I will not leave your side until you recover. I promise.’

 

He let out a sigh, eyes closing once again from exhaustion. Flowey gentle laid him back onto the couch, and pulled a blanket over him. Papyrus finally drifted off to sleep, something he had so desperately needed after the past few nights of not sleeping.

 

The child, relieved from seeing that Papyrus was alright, suddenly felt very exhausted themselves. They stumbled backwards, but was caught by Flowey’s vines before they fell over.

 

‘And you, are you okay?’ asked Flowey, now turning to them, ‘You’re really badly injured, you should go eat some food too.’

 

The child had never heard Flowey speak in such a gentle, kind voice before, and were a little taken aback. Still, they went back to the kitchen, and returned with a bar of chocolate in their mouth and two glasses of milk. 

 

They offered one to Flowey, who declined and told them to leave it on the table. They then sat down beside the couch, and began to hungrily consume the chocolate. As they ate, the burns on their back healed slowly, and they felt much better.

 

There was a long silence between them all. Papyrus continued to sleep peacefully, the child never took their eyes off him after they finished their chocolate. Flowey alternated between staring at Papyrus and sneaking glances at the child.

 

‘Flowey?’ came Frisk’s voice suddenly.

 

Flowey was startled, not expecting to hear Frisk’s voice at all after hearing the child speak in Chara’s voice for so long.

 

‘I’m...I’m sorry.’

 

Flowey continued to be stunned, unable to respond to the child at all.

 

‘I’m sorry for...for all of this. I know it’s probably no use apologizing, after what I did to everyone, and to you, during those timelines. And it’s not use apologizing after what happened here. Papyrus was hurt because of me. He was such a good friend a...and,’ the child began to tear up, ‘I...I hurt him. He...he c...could have d...died, again. I...I just want him to get b...better. I’m s...so sorry.

 

Flowey felt tears in his own eyes as well. He tried to blink them back.

 

‘Look, Frisk,’ he replied, voice shaky, ‘You did wrong, you really did a lot of bad things... sometimes I can still feel you slashing me to death during some of the timelines, just before you leave the Underground. But,’ tears began to roll down his face despite his efforts to stop crying, ‘I hurt you too, didn’t I? I hurt everyone. I did horrible things to everyone, before you even came to the Underground. Killing, torturing, hurting...and I just reset because everything would go back to normal when I did. I never thought about the damage I did.’

 

‘It wasn’t until I turned back into Asriel, and felt everyone’s souls in me, that I began realizing how much I hurt them, how much I hurt you. It was...a horrible realization. And even until now, I still feel the guilt. I’m...I’m sorry, Frisk. I wish...I wish I could apologize to everyone too. I wish I could apologize to Papyrus, because he would always befriend me in every timeline, but I still enjoyed harming him. I...I’m horrible...I’m sorry...’

 

Chara, from within Frisk, could feel Frisk crying and saw tears running down the face of what used to be their brother.

 

They were a proud, headstrong child. They were taught to bury their emotions, to not feel any compassion. It was the reason why they always had a forced smile on their face, and laughed when anything bad happened. But despite that, Frisk’s tears and the sight of Flowey weeping, as well as their new friend lying unconscious before them, made them feel as if their heart was breaking.

 

‘Asriel?’ they finally said.

 

Flowey startled again. It was centuries since he heard their voice call him by his old name. An old feeling of familiarity and warmth began to fill him, something he had never felt ever since he was turned into a flower.

 

‘I...I suppose you would prefer to be called Flowey now.’ Chara continued. Frisk fell silent, realizing that Chara wanted a private conversation with their long lost brother, ‘I owe you an apology as well, in fact, I owe everyone, even Frisk, an apology.’

 

‘Do you recall how you, as well as Mom and Dad, had to teach me how to express kindness and compassion? I still have the vivid memory of Dad filing down his gardening tools, and Mom hiding the knives in her kitchen, simply because I enjoyed playing with sharp items so much, and found joy in injuring others. I laughed when we accidentally gave Dad buttercup pie. I...I was simply awful back then, but because of all of you, I changed for the better. I began to understand what love was, and how to express love.’

 

‘But yet, here I am, a spirit possessing Frisk, making them do things against their will. I was still bitter against humans, I wanted revenge on all of humanity. I caused your death, As- Flowey. W...we could have grown up together and lived peacefully but...but I ruined everything. My bitterness grew, and I began to hate the monsters as well after my death. When Frisk tried killing monsters in some timelines, I enjoyed it, and urged them on. A...and now...and now I almost killed...the only person who still believes in me…’

 

‘...it is all my fault...all my fault…’

 

They broke down into tears as well, crying for the first time in centuries. 

 

They suddenly felt vines around them, wrapping around them gently. And despite sharing a body with Frisk, they could almost feel the warmth of a hug from Frisk. 

 

They whimpered, tears still rolling down their cheeks, gently pulling Flowey’s vines close to them.

 

There was nothing more to be said. The three children sat there beside the unconscious skeleton for a few hours, holding each other close, all of them feeling sad, but also comforted by each others’ presence.

 

A little later, the children realized they were all nodding off, exhausted by everything that had happened earlier. Frisk and Chara were also feeling rather cold due to their ripped up clothing. They decided that it was now bedtime.

 

The child went upstairs to change into pajamas and brush their teeth. They took their sleeping bag down with them so that they could sleep in the living room, wanting to be beside Papyrus and Flowey for the night. 

 

Flowey was already dozing off while he waited for them. The glass of milk they poured for him sat beside his flowerpot, empty. 

 

The child laid their sleeping bag out next to the couch. After turning off the lights to the living room and snuggling into their sleeping bag, all of them fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.


End file.
